My family and I enjoyed our first family retreat with many other families from our church last weekend at the Christian campground where our son has spent a week the past two summers. In fact, he and I stayed in the same cabin he stayed in then.
It rained almost the entire twenty-four hours we were there. We had a great time anyway. The kids swam in the swimming hole until exhausted. I hiked two trails, drinking in my time alone with the Creator like the cool, falling rain. We shared a devotional time around the campfire in the evening, capped by the blessing of freshly-made smores.
And for the first part of worship Sunday morning, the children led. I didn't know some of their songs -- including "Hip, Hip, Hip, Hippopotamus"! -- but I surely was uplifted.
One of them was led by an adorable, precocious 4- or 5-year-old girl. I could tell that one of our children's ministry deacon, ostensibly leading or at least wrangling these younger worship leaders, had a moment of hesitation and even responded to some parent's half-joking unheard comment with "Well, she's not teaching or having authority over the rest of us, is she?"
It couldn't spoil the moment for me. There, on the bleachers under a big wooden shed-of-a-gymnasium that was open to the mist-shrouded green surround, a child was praising God for all of it and her parents and friends joined her.
I couldn't help but think of a time when His Son scolded His best friends: "Let the children come to Me; don't forbid them! Why, anyone who wants to be part of my kingdom needs to become just like one of them!"
So we were. We sang "Jesus Loves Me." We sang "This Little Light of Mine." We sang a half-dozen others.
And the little children led us.
No punitive lightning fell from heaven.
In fact, a few moments later, shafts of sunlight pierced the canopy of leaves above and chased the greyness and the mist from the campground.
Tell me God wasn't smiling.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Perfected Praise
Two extraordinary things strike me about what Jesus says in response to His detractors in Matthew 21:16 (giving Him trouble because children are loudly praising God for His arrival in Jerusalem).
He tells them, yes, He hears them; then asks: "Have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have perfected praise'?"
The first thing is that He seems to be quoting Psalm 8:2, which says "From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger."
Though the phrase "established strength" is variously translated "founded strength," "ordained strength," "made clear your strength," and even "established praise," there is an implication there:
Jesus equates "perfecting praise" with "establishing strength."
And the second thing is that our example is our children. The ones pointed out to Jesus had been "crying in the temple" that He was the "Son of David."
Is there something about "crying in the temple" that perfects praise and establishes strength?
I wonder about all those times when I hear a baby cry or a toddler giggle in our assembly. An embarrassed parent usually hurries the child to the nursery or a training room while worship continues as well as it can until the "disturbance" is removed.
I wonder if we're removing a wonderful example of praise.
Yes, it's an annoying noise and it interrupts. But when a baby cries, she lets everything out. She hasn't learned yet to hold back; to hide her emotions behind a mask of control and ceremony. She wails at the top of her lungs. She hollers.
The toddler who gets tickled and cannot stop laughing hasn't learned to. He hasn't learned that life is supposed to have serious and respectful times. He hasn't learned that there must be a time and place and reason to be happy. He just is. (I remember an instance a decade ago when our walking-but-not-yet-talking little Matthew started giggling fitfully in a pie shop for no apparent reason and pretty soon had us and everyone else there in stitches.)
Do we miss out on perfected praise -- on unrestrained strength; on relief from grief; on unstoppable joy -- by holding back when we worship?
He tells them, yes, He hears them; then asks: "Have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have perfected praise'?"
The first thing is that He seems to be quoting Psalm 8:2, which says "From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger."
Though the phrase "established strength" is variously translated "founded strength," "ordained strength," "made clear your strength," and even "established praise," there is an implication there:
Jesus equates "perfecting praise" with "establishing strength."
And the second thing is that our example is our children. The ones pointed out to Jesus had been "crying in the temple" that He was the "Son of David."
Is there something about "crying in the temple" that perfects praise and establishes strength?
I wonder about all those times when I hear a baby cry or a toddler giggle in our assembly. An embarrassed parent usually hurries the child to the nursery or a training room while worship continues as well as it can until the "disturbance" is removed.
I wonder if we're removing a wonderful example of praise.
Yes, it's an annoying noise and it interrupts. But when a baby cries, she lets everything out. She hasn't learned yet to hold back; to hide her emotions behind a mask of control and ceremony. She wails at the top of her lungs. She hollers.
The toddler who gets tickled and cannot stop laughing hasn't learned to. He hasn't learned that life is supposed to have serious and respectful times. He hasn't learned that there must be a time and place and reason to be happy. He just is. (I remember an instance a decade ago when our walking-but-not-yet-talking little Matthew started giggling fitfully in a pie shop for no apparent reason and pretty soon had us and everyone else there in stitches.)
Do we miss out on perfected praise -- on unrestrained strength; on relief from grief; on unstoppable joy -- by holding back when we worship?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
