who is your daddy?

It was my turn to watch the children this Sunday. I have watched the children before and it usually looks the same. We get upstairs make our way upstairs after the music and I begin to unravel for them some eternal truth by telling them an exciting story. As usual, they seemed more interested in letting it be known that my story was not making its way into their little ears, let alone their young hearts, than feigning obedience. They honestly did very well. About 4 minutes into it God begins to teach me. First, He encourges me to lose the my own agenda of success. I put away my lectern and the kids put away their halo's and we meet as we are. I want to love the kid. I want them to leave knowing that they have a God that loves little kids coming to Him and that the church loves them to come too. After we had started coloring a picture of a woman holding a fatty loaf of manna (little did I know, manna came in loaf size pieces) one of the little boys, 4 years of age, distanced himself from the group. Leaving the rest of the group making their pictured women all different sorts of natural and alien colors I approached this child alone. "Hey K., what up?" I gently asked. "I hate my Dad," was the only reply. "why?" "He hits my mom." "I am sorry" I told him, not knowing what else to say. I felt dumb, even helpless. Dumb with compassion. "It's okay, it's not your fault," he said, trying to comfort me, seeing the worry in my eyes. He went on, "I hate because he is mean and I can't do anything, and...." So I told him how much God loved him and how much I loved him. How good of a Daddy God is and how awesome of a little kid he is. 4 years old!!! We talked together for about 10 minutes, but I have listened to that conversation repeatedly over the past days. Pray that God would fill this beautiful little boys heart with forgiveness and love. That he would grow up to be a mature man of God. Take comfort in the word of your heavenly Father. Spend time with Him. Only then will you know what to tell others when they ask.