Last night I spent some time with a friend who happens to be an elder at my church and one of my coaching staff leaders. We were talking about changes at our church that have come and those that may come one way or another. Some things could be great while others would lead to times of hardship. As we talked and encouraged each other to totally depend on God for direction and provision in our lives. Our conversation took a turn, and we started to look at some of the impact that God has had over the years through our ministry together. He reminded me of something that happened a few weeks ago that was a moment of God speaking to my team and me.
Each Sunday morning my coaching team tries to gather for a time of prayer together. We pray for the day ahead and for each other we ask for Gods blessing to be upon our church and our children’s ministry this day and those to come. So this particular morning we had a late start to our prayer time and kids had stared to arrive mostly kids of our leaders who help in our ministry. As we were praying we could hear playing and some running past us. Just before we were half way done we could hear Marc hading our way. Now I have to pause for a moment and tell you about my friend Marc.
Marc is one of our special needs kids who is in 6th or 7th grade but comes to worship in the elementary ministry. He fits in great! He’s one of those kids who love to touch your hands or arms when he’s talking to you. He likes to be a clown at times but never is out to hurt anyone. Mark’s dream is to be the character from the Nintendo game Mario Bro’s. He wants to be Mario. What an imagination he has and he has such a big heart. Mark seems to love everyone but most he loves God.
Well, as I was saying we could here Marc coming he came up to our circle ducked under our hand clasped hands and made his way into the middle. There were only four of us this day. As he stood there in the middle, in his own way asked what were doing? Some one said in a whisper “were praying”. He stood quietly and watched and listened as we prayed for God’s blessing on our team and day. Just as one of us said in Jesus name Marc pointed to another person and said your turn. Then he stood and listen some more until that leader was wrapping up, then if my memory serves me he said I pray and he prayed a short prayer and then pointed and said you go. Then satisfied that we were doing well he ducked under our hands and off to play he went. We all stood there with smiles on our faces tears rolling down some cheeks. We wrapped up the prayer and knew that this day was good and God had blessed us.
My friend pointed this out to me saying “some times we just need a hug from God and other times we just need to jump up in the center of His lap and tell him that we love Him.” He continued to say this what he thought of when Marc jumped into our circle he was jumping into the Lords lap as we were giving God a group hug. Marc wanted to be apart of it. How cool is it when we see the fruit of our labor?
God showed us that day that we were making a difference in the lives of children and families. Marc would have never felt so comfortable getting in the middle of us if he didn’t know we loved him and God.
So when was the last time you jumped into the lap of our Lord and looked him in the face and a said “I love you.”?
Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
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