This would have been the greatest (!) place to share some pictures from our wonderful youth church Christmas party yesterday, but amongst all the hustle and bustle of activity and food preparation I forgot to bring my camera! That's OK, the memories will just have to live in our hearts.
For those who don't know, I paired up with some amazing middle and high school youth group members both from our church and other local churches to provide parents with an afternoon of free babysitting. The point was to let them have some free time during such a busy time of year (and maybe get some Christmas shopping done without little eyes peeping), while the kids got to hang out with their church friends and participate in a bunch of fun activities to celebrate the season in their own way.
I was told many times that I was crazy for doing this- we had 32 kids (aged 10 months to 18 years) in the undercroft and we needed to keep them all busy for four and a half hours! Four. And. A. Half. Hours. How would we make it happen?
I confess that I fell into doubt a couple of times just before the activity began, and wondered how I could ever have gotten myself into this mess? But, as usually happens just about the time I start to think THIS TIME I've really gotten myself in over my head... the grace shown through. I've heard it called a million things- "God breezes," "epiphanies," "moments of truth," but to me it's simply God's grace coming through to little old me waaaaaay down here on earth. It comes through in those moments of uncertainty and calms the heart just enough to allow one to take the bull by the horns once more.
The best part about yesterday, however, was that the grace didn't come from inside my heart- it came from the children that I spent the day with. It came from watching the older kids so tenderly and carefully watching over the little ones: helping them to play kickball, helping them to glue the eyes on their reindeer, and helping them to decorate their Christmas cookies. It came from younger children playing respectfully with peers, and from the littlest following along innocently behind, enraptured by the commotion. The other adult chaperones and I were able to enjoy ourselves so very much thanks to the huge hearts of our parish children!
We've been talking a lot about Advent lately- in youth group, in Children's Chapel and at home. Father Tim even talked about ways that we can prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord last week during his sermon with the children. Watching the kids interact with one another with such love and respect yesterday was all I needed to see to prove the efficacy of our teaching and goals as a Christian community. I realized that it didn't matter if each little activity went off perfectly as planned because a bigger goal was accomplished: the children of our church spent an entire afternoon serving one another in the Spirit of God, preparing their hearts for Christmas.
(I think they had some fun, too!)
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