Over the course of both my personal and professional life, I have had the priviledge of working with a lot of children. Anyone that has children or knows children, also knows they can say some really cute things and ask some hilarious questions!
For example, just recently, I was teaching one of my husband's classes a song, as a surprise for him, ( He was with another class) and one of the second graders said "Wow, Mrs. Manchester, it's really cool that you are married to Mr Manchester! Does that mean you are brother and sister?"
HILARIOUS!!!
A while back when the Twilight Saga became a big rage, I was in a school cafeteria setting and a student came up to me and said "Mrs. Manchester, you really look like a vampire!" Now, I think the kid meant this as some kind of compliment and I was ready to just roll with it. But another staff member overheard this and gave the kid a stern talking to. She even made the child write me an apology! When the child delivered the apology, she added on in a faint whisper right before she turned around to walk away, "But I actually really do think you look like a vampire! "
HILARIOUS!!
One of my earliest instances of getting comments about my appearance was also with a second grader. The child interrupted the whole class to say "Mrs. Manchester, it's hitting me that you look just like my momma." Again, I took it as a kind of compliment and just kind of nodded and smiled but all the while thinking to myself, "Hmm,I wonder how that's possible because I am Caucasian and this child is not ....So, the kid wasn't quite finished yet and added this last tidbit. "You look just like my momma because your teeth are almost as crooked as hers."
Wow! Thanks! :)
But one of my all time favorites was the night I was doing a devotional with my little sisters, and putting them to bed. I was telling them the salvation story and explaining that you can pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart. One of my sisters, laying quietly in her bed spoke up and said she was interested in doing it, but she just had two questions, "If I ask Jesus into my heart, will he fit? And will it hurt at all?
Super cute, right??
Well, thirteen years later I have a different answer to those questions than I gave back then.
Of course He'll fit...ha ha ha..., and no it won't hurt...trying to explain the abstract concept of a relationship with God....
But now, being older and wiser and I know a few more things about a relationship with God and this knowledge has drastically changed my views.
Does God really fit into me?? NO WAY! Just in part...there's nothing in this world that can contain Him! And at my brightest moments, I reflect only a mere glimpse of his goodness....at my worst, I block others from seeing him and being able to know him.... So No, he doesn't fit....even just trying to connect with God in my humanness is stretching and pulling and changing me....in ways I didn't even know I needed to be stretched and pulled and changed...
And Further, the way of Jesus is the way of the Cross. The way of the Cross is suffering....and so if you really start following Jesus, you will start finding yourself in some painful situations.
You might find yourself in the slums picking up your first adopted child.
You might find yourself in the hospital room with a girlfriend who has just lost ANOTHER baby for seemingly no reason.
You might find yourself giving up your six figure job to move overseas and work with street kids who have no place to call home.
You might find yourself letting go of ladder climbing type social engagements that cost you a promotion so you can serve meals to the homeless....
Because these are places Jesus would probably go.
So much of my christian life has been spent trying to get OUT of painful situations, and thinking, wrongly so , that God's ultimate plan was to get to me to the place where suffering was in the distant past...and it's only been in the past year or so that I am really starting to get this concept of becoming like Christ in his suffering.
While I wait for the day when I get to hear my own daughters cute little quips and qoutes about life...I am reflecting on and thankful for the kids from my past that God has used to help me understand some of the deeper mysteries of the faith.
So, does he fit? Not really.....
Does it hurt? Definately....
But is it worth it? ( A new question I ask myself sometimes..) TOTALLY.
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