Become like children. Oh, as a passionate kids pastor I could waffle on about this for hours and possibly write a sermon or even a sermon series on it! In Kids Church a month or so ago, the children were in the midst of their 20 minute free play activities before we officially began the session. I was on the door registering kids as they arrived. Every Sunday we have a lunch for the homeless and often some of the homeless people will come to the service before lunch. On this particular morning one of the homeless men appeared with a trolley full of his 'belongings'. Rather than dragging it into church he pointed to the corner of the Kids Church room indicating he wanted to leave it there. Of course I said yes to his request but not before a whole ton of thoughts had passed through my brain. Thoughts like 'I'd better just watch him whilst he is in the room to make sure the kids stay safe' Yes, I have a duty of care to the children but why did I jump straight to the conclusion that he could be some kind of peadophile?
While the man was dragging his cart into the room, one of the boys looked up from the Jenga tower he was building, stood up and walked over to the man. I was a little panicky but interested to see how this was going to play out. The young boy, with all his innocence asked the man why he had brought all his 'toys' to church. A number of different things happened inside me at this point. A part of me wanted to laugh, another part of me cringed and another part of me just wanted to get the child as far away as possible. This man clearly just wanted to leave his stuff and go and sit in church, he hadn't spoken a word to me, just pointed, so why would he bother with a small child? To my surprise the man spoke to the boy, it was brief, I can't actually remember what he said but it satisfied the child's curiosity and off he went back to his Jenga tower.
That event hadn't really impacted me until I remembered it today. How judgemental had I been, maybe not with my words but definitely with my thoughts. If I hadn't had my filter and been more like my Kids Church child that whole interaction could have been so different. Obviously I knew the real reason behind why he was carrying all his stuff in a trolley but I could have asked some other questions, like his name, or offered to help. It's so so easy to judge people and have preconceived ideas. I hope I can become more like the kids I teach and catch some of their innocence.
