Yeah!!

It happened again this morning around the Table. I should have been looking for it after the last several months, but once more I found myself caught by surprise. Once again it was a child whom God used to say a word about what was happening in that holy frame. She was six or seven and down the rail from me about ten feet. I was preparing to speak the Table dismissal when I heard a quiet commotion which caused me to pause and look her way. She had just drained the small cup in a rather dramatic fashion. Her head was still turned back and the cup was in the air on its way to the rail when she exclaimed slightly above a whisper, "Yeah!" Her face was the picture of joy and her voice was the sound of exuberance. When I saw her, I knew at least one person had gotten it right!

What made the moment all the more compelling was the Word which had been read only a short time earlier. As soon as I heard her "Yeah!" I remembered what I had just read to the gathered people. It was from Mark's gospel. In the 15th verse of the 11th chapter we hear Jesus saying, "Truly, I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."

It was at this point that I heard another "Yeah!" This time it came forth from my own heart. The child had it more right than I did with all my theological training and decades of experience. I had been moving along doing what was supposed to be done, experiencing something of what God was about there around the rail, but not like the child with the upturned head and smacking lips. When God saw her, He surely must have laughed knowing that at least one of his children experienced what was happening as good. I could not help but wonder about the rest of us.