A Touching Moment
And a Lesson in the Joy of Service from a Child
David R. Ferguson
This past Wednesday evening my eight year old son,
Damien, who had the two prior Wednesdays led the singing during
our mid-week Bible study with the assistance of his father, went
about happily and busily preparing the selection of the songs and
jotting down notes for himself to remember when to call on one of
the men for prayer, and who he would ask. He concluded this task
just before the appointed time to begin, eagerly awaiting for his
moment to do his part to help out in our gathering. But just as
he was about to get up to direct the congregational singing one
of the elders, who was making the announcements, began leading the
singing himself. He did not realize that Damien had wanted to do
this. Had he known he would have been delighted to have Damien help
out in this manner. Unfortunately, I had inadvertently forgotten
to tell him of Damien's desire.
I looked over at my son as we were singing the
first song and I noticed that he looked very sad and try as he might
to prevent it from happening a single, solitary teardrop had trickled
from the corner of his eye. I asked him what was wrong, and he informed
me that he was sad because he had wanted to lead the singing!
As I sat there and placed my arm around my son's
shoulder to comfort him, I could not help but feel a sense of good
will for my son as I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be wonderful
if we all could recapture the desire of youth and want to do our
part to serve the Lord?" My son had looked upon leading the
congregation in singing as a thing of joy, and an opportunity to
help and serve others. I was reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew
19:4, "Let the little children come to Me. Don't stop them,
because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people who are like these
children."
How many of us view our own Christian life of service
as an opportunity of joy, privilege, and pleasantry, or do we instead
view it as a bothersome drudgery? By the numbers of individuals
that are consistently missing from our midst from even meeting with
their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ each Lord's day, it
would seem that too many of us today regard the assembling of ourselves
together as a toilsome and troublesome undertaking, both vexing
and disturbing, and not as an opportunity to edify and encourage
our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4:10, "Each person
should use the gift he has received to help other people, like a
good manager of the many kinds of God's gracious love." Let
us all learn a lesson from Damien. Let us learn that true joy comes
from seeking what God is doing around you, seeing the world through
His eyes, and picking up on His delight in us as His children. I
pray that the next time you are not able to use the gift that God
has given you that you, too, will shed a tear of sadness.
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