Christmas eve Scott and I drove down to Kingston, MA (about a 1 1/2 hour drive) to spend the holiday with my family. My sister’s house is always warm and inviting, with couches that feel like marshmallows when you sit in them (you don’t just sit
on them). We gorged on buffalo chicken dip (quickly becoming a favorite, thanks to my sister-in-law Joy), bruschetta, ham, twice-baked potatoes… I could go on and on about the food.
My nieces and nephews have been prepped for a while that their Uncle Scott and Aunty Nea will be going around the world. My oldest niece, Lindsey, 9,who is intelligent beyond her years, had me open a gift… for our dog, Sequoia (who is, as of today, residing with our pastor’s family…sniff, sniff). I opened a stocking of doggie chew toys. Sequoia wasn’t in the house, due to all the allergies my relatives have, so Lindsey told me we had to go out to the car to bring her this gift.
When we got to the car I opened the door, Sequoia was grinning from ear to ear, wagging her tail, happy to see her cousins’ Lindsey and Hannah (Lindsey’s younger, animal loving sister). Lindsey quickly threw Sequoia a squeeze toy and bolted to the staircase (although Sequoia was still in the car, with me gaurding the door.) Lindsey loves Sequoia from a distance and genuinely wanted Sequoia to be happy with her gift. I told Lindsey that Sequoia is lucky to have such great cousins to give her gifts!
Lindsey then said, “well, that’s what Christmas is all about.” Hannah echoed in repeating that Christmas was about giving gifts. I asked Lindsey, “Why do we celebrate Christmas?”
She answered, “Because that’s when Jesus was born.”
I asked her why Jesus’ birth was so important, what did he do that makes us celebrate his coming into the world? And she answered, that he died for us on Easter. (OK, she’s nine… really Good Friday, but she’s fairly on target.) I helped her out a little bit, by adding that his resurrection was even more important than just his crucifixion (in kid terms of course), and that we need a Savior. That Jesus died for our sins, he took on all of our sins past and future that day, and when we ask him into our hearts he is able to forgive all of them.
Lindsey, being the bright girl she is, then asked, “So what did the people who lived before Jesus do to help take away their sins?” (First off, what 9 year old thinnks this way?) I answered, that’s what a lot of the Old Testament in the Bible is about. There’s a lot of rules in there for living a life that is pleasing to God. But we don’t live by that law anymore, we live by grace, grace that can only be given through Jesus.
After we came back inside, I started thinking about the moment we had out there at the car with Sequoia. How that moment was a discipling moment. No one is too young to begin discipling. I don’t use the word teaching anymore. Anyone can learn things, but it’s another thing to breathe truth and urge others to
live it. I hope and pray that as much as I’m becoming a disciple this year, I’m (really God is) leading others, whether on the field or at home, into discipleship. The harvest may not be ripe in many places in America, but children are thirsty… feed them, in whatever capacity you have, whether in Sunday School, youth groups, parenting, grandparenting. Kids yearn for truth, and the younger they hear it, the more likely they are to live it!
