We arrived at Prairie Home Church 20 minutes late (because I had it in my mind that it started at 9:30 not 9:15) and Ethan was fussy the minute we walked in. I brought a toy truck from Grammy and Poppy's to hopefully keep him occupied during the service. It had, after all, kept him so enthralled the night before he had slept with it on his pillow.
Things were going okay for a while and I could even pay attention to most of the things that the minister was speaking about--the Holy Spirit and Pentecost, Loving God being the most important commandment, and not being so caught up in worrying about how to be a "good Christian" and just being more like Jesus.
Ethan had been pretty good so far (at least as good as a 2 year old boy nicknamed El Destructo can be) and then he did it. He pushed the truck under the pew in front of us and crawled after it. Connie Griffith was sitting in front of us and when we all made moves to get Ethan before he could go further she said, "Let him go. He's okay." No sooner had she spoken than Ethan had pushed the truck to the front of the church and was crawling out from under the pew to see the pastor squatting in front of him.
The pastor kept talking as he and Ethan took turns pushing the truck back and forth. He said (and I'm paraphrasing) "The pharisees told Jesus that he was sinning when he healed someone on the sabbath, but He was doing the will of the Father. Should I stop pushing a truck back and forth with a little child during my sermon since it's not considered a proper thing to be doing during a church service? What do you think that Jesus would do?"
What a perfect illustration of the minister's sermon my rowdy son turned out to be. He later said that it was the Holy Spirit that led Ethan to the front to play. He had completely lost his train of thought and didn't know what he was going to say next when Ethan provided the inspiration for a message from God to all of us. I think the message goes right along with what Pastor John has been preaching about revival. God may use different methods than we're used to in these last days, but that doesn't mean that they are not His ways. We just need to look to Him first and follow what He tells us to do, and He will make our paths straight. I believe that He
will require us to step out of our comfort zones, so we should crawl out from under our pews with the faith of a little child and enjoy the ride.
3 And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.
Matthew 18:3-5
