It was the last night of God Chasers, our church's Wednesday night program for children, and I was already to sum it all up....all the lessons we had learned, the verses we had memorized, and give the plan of salvation again as easy as I knew how. Before class started one of the other teachers told me that she had given one of my boys a ride home the week before and he had prayed to accept Christ. She asked me to follow up on that and I was excited to do so.
I love the salvation story and I drew a big picture on the chalk board of two cliffs. Man was on one and God was on the other. There is a huge chasm in between and there is no way man can get to God. That chasm represents SIN and how sin separates man from God. But as I told the story I began to draw a cross that would connect the two cliffs. Of course, this cross represents the only way man has to get to God, through His son Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. I was able to bring many verses into this story and the kids were really listening. We prayed at the end and I invited anyone with questions to stay and talk with me. Just the boy I wanted to talk to lingered until everyone left. His head was hanging low and I said, "Would you like to talk about something?" Without hesitation, he said, "I understand what you are saying, but I have done some pretty horrible things and I don't think God would ever forgive me for those things." Keep in mind this little boy was in fourth grade. The mom in me wanted to say, "Just what kind of horrible things have you done?" But I refrained and very calmly turned to I John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I said, "Blake, did you commit murder, because that is sin." Of course, he said no and we talked about what sin is and that the verse in the Bible doesn't categorize sin, but if someone would murder someone else God would forgive them because He says so in His Word. His face lit up and he said, "Wow, I feel alot better now." I asked him about his prayer to the Lord and he told me exactly what God had done for him by sending His son to die in His place. He got it, he really got it. I gave him a Bible that night and he must have thanked me two to three times for that. I told him I hoped I would see him next year at God Chasers, but he replied that he didn't know where he would be living then, but surely hoped to be at VBS.
I have thought of him so often since then. He only came for about 4-5 weeks, I had never seen him before and may never see him again. "I have done some pretty horrible things", flashes through my mind now and again. I praise the Lord right then and there, that no matter how horrible my sin is, He forgives me and He gives me grace to be better the next day and to trust Him more.
The faith of a child is something pretty special and I think we make this life of ours way too hard.
Love ya, Kim
