60/365

This little girl and her big brother ran circles around me and practiced their jumping and leaping with vigor. They lined up animals and people and cars in good order (and why shouldn't the llama ride the school bus?). They stacked blocks 'til they crashed and rolled balls across the rug and gave the sit-n-spin a few spirited whirls. We thanked God for our animal crackers and goldfish on kleenex tissue placemats and ate them together seated on kid-sized chairs at a kid-sized table. It was the very sweetest time of my day.

There were years of serving in the nursery because I "had" to- because I had a string of little people and needed to take my fair share of turns. It wasn't that I didn't want to serve in the nursery during those years. Yet it certainly was assumed that I would. (and that was all good and right, I think.) Now, however, come the years of serving in the nursery because I delight in it. It only comes around every 6 weeks or so. After several years in the same place, I now again have the privilege of caring for the same little ones that I have seen baptized, the ones to whom I vowed to "undertake the responsibility of assisting the parents in the Christian nurture of this child." In these days of parenting teens and young adults, an hour with babies and toddlers passes in a blink of an eye. Yet the gift continues to surprise, when the following week, the little ones give you a shy wave as they catch your eye across the sanctuary or embrace your legs with an unexpected hug in the Sunday school hallway. Who would not be quickly woo-ed?

I walk out thankful for the privilege of life in the covenant community once again.