I Almost Missed It!

One little kid touched my heart tonight. He was a little boy about 5 or 6, who was with an aunt or a sister. He had already colored a Kristoph and had also picked out an Anna, when she told him he had to come on. He said, “But I want to make one for mom”. She let him go back to his second paper. I had told him he could take it with him and color it at home. That’s when he told me he didn’t have any crayons at home. His sister agreed….Although all we had were mostly broken, I made arrangements for him to be able to take some home. Not only the little boy, but his sister was so excited. Made my whole night. I think I may serve again next weekend. 🙂

This is my Facebook post from a year ago. We now keep brand new crayons in our craft tent when we serve at Glendale Glitters. What a simple gesture. What a beautiful glimpse of Jesus I got to be apart of.

I can’t share this story without crying. The Holy Spirit does that to me. When I’m in the presence of something much bigger, much purer, much holier than me, my soul cries. It used to embarrass me. Not anymore. No, I lie. It still does.

I almost missed it last night, you know. I didn’t exactly miss a weeping Holy Spirit experience, oh but as I sat at home last night, I became restless.

I had texted my pastor about 2 hours before it was time to serve, that even though I had committed to serving, I wasn’t going to be there because I had a sick kid.

In all honestly, I didn’t want to go. I was tired. I felt over committed. I wanted to be selfish, and finish another one of my mats for the someone who is homeless. Oh, and I really hated the craft we were doing.

We were helping the kids make a Minion on a Stick. Kids had to glue it’s pants on, then it’s suspenders, it’s feet and eyes and then draw on its glasses, hair, mouth and nose, before sticking it to a stick, that had a super sticking backing to its small piece of tape that everyone fought to peel off.

Friday night we had quite a system for moving these kids along. My motto: Get them in. Then get them out…fast. (You know how I am with kids, if not, read my bio.)

I’m a fan of the assembly line. We had kids moving this way and that way. We did an awesome job of keeping those pesky parents with the strollers out too. It was a beautiful system.

But at the end of the night, though, I had just about had it. I felt like I was fighting everyone.

“The line starts here. ”
“No, no. We pick our parts up here, then move down to where Miss Melissa tells you. We don’t assemble him here.”
“Oh, this is the gluing station. Once your Minion is glued together, you can walk down to this other table to draw his face on.”

It wasn’t fun.

So I had decided I didn’t want to put myself through that aggravation again. Plus, I really did have a sick kid. The only thing was, she wasn’t acting sick anymore. But then my son got sent home from work for being sick, so I was able to go pick him up. But that only took a minute. And I finished the mat I had started. And Mike was staying home, so the kids wouldn’t be alone. And…and…and…ALRIGHT! I’ll go.

When the Holy Spirit starts tugging on my heart, I have a hard time ignoring it. I didn’t feel like I was letting my pastor down. I felt like I was letting Jesus down.

So I went….late.

Do you know what I saw? I saw Jesus. Of course I did.

As I approached the tent I could see tons of people. But I wasn’t seeing anyone in blue. Our church color is a unique shade of turquoise.

As I pushed my way through the crowd I found my pastor and asked where everyone was. It was just two of them. WHAT?

The two of them had combined four, six foot tables into a horseshoe and with one on each side, was passing out all the minion pieces as a kit as the children approached. And on the table in front of them were markers and glue sticks.

And you know what? It was working! It didn’t need six of us like the night before, and it didn’t need a system.

If Jesus wants to do something, not much is going to stop Him. He calls everyone, but if he only gets a few…He’ll make it work with a just a few. That’s what I was seeing last night. This weekend we served 1500-1800 kids.

I truly saw….

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. – Matthew 9:37

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” – Matthew 19:26

More of us did start to show up to help. But at this point I felt it was more for my benefit. Not the kids. I wasn’t doing anything for the Glory of God. I was witnessing the Glory of God. And I almost missed it.

Yeah, I think I’ll serve again next weekend. I never want to miss out on seeing what God can do.