Today is Easter. I have been planning for this day for weeks. Worrying about it has kept me up at night, has made work on other projects nearly impossible, and has even sent me, the crowd-phobe, to Walmart.
I was asked to plan/organize/run a giant gym that would be filled with 250 2, 3, and 4 year olds. Kind of a big assignment. And event planning is really not my thing. But I love that age group, and I love Jesus, so I agreed.
I'm not going to lie; it was crazy stressful. And Satan was fighting hard for us all to fail (more on that in another post, but when I tell you we had no air conditioning for several hours, you get the idea of just how petty and irritating that guy can be). And it was a fairly crazy morning. But it was good. The children were delighted, no one had a huge accident (scatological or otherwise), and our volunteers far surpassed my wildest imaginings in terms of creativity, stamina, and general fantastic helpfulness.
The temptation for many of us after a day like today is to brainstorm all the ways we can make it better next year (or at least that is the way I am wired!). But I feel the need to pause a moment and rejoice in how amazingly gracious God was to us today. There is absolutely no earthly reason why such huge numbers of children were so joyous for three hours this morning, why parents were so calm and understanding, or why 100's of volunteers were so gifted and flexible. It was an astonishing morning. In our gym alone, no one cried inconsolably (at least not the whole time!), no one needed an EMT or stitches, and I repeatedly looked across the room to see a dozen toddlers or preschoolers listening with rapt attention to the Easter story, or celebrating the empty tomb with tambourines and shouts of "Hallelujah!"
Yes, I have about a dozen plans whirling in my head about how to make it better next year, and I am grateful to God for those. But most of all, I am stunned by the love and faithfulness He showed His children today, from the oldest and wisest volunteer to the crankiest two-year-old. He was beyond faithful, and I felt immensely honored to witness His power and love through this morning's service.
So as we plan and dream and troubleshoot for next year, I just wanted to spend a moment in grateful awe of the way He powerfully showed up for His children this morning!
He is risen! Hallelujah!
"After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: 'Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.'" --John 17:1-3
No comments:
Post a Comment