Giggles with Jesus

Fourth grade boys sure can giggle. I realize that may not be a shock to anyone who has raised/is raising a fourth grade boy, but I offer it as a warning to those who may not yet have one of these persons in their home or frame of experience. Having been out of children's ministry for several years and having only taught fifth grade and up, I'd forgotten this fact. But, I was reminded of this truth this morning in Bible study as I laughed with two who'd been bitten by the silly bug. And, when they get that tickled, reigning in the troops can take a little longer than you'd planned. Somehow, though, we actually managed to get through the lesson, and had a wonderful time, too.

I'm doing some basic discipleship with these guys over a period of 4 weeks. Last week, we discussed what it means to be a Christian (Christ-follower), and this week we examined the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. We even observed the Lord's Supper in complete reverence using Chips Ahoy and milk. We broke the cookies to remind us of Christ's body being broken, and sipped the milk explaining how the normal use of wine or grape juice is a great reminder of Jesus' blood being shed. It was more practical to use cookies and milk because as we discussed Jesus' baptism in Matthew 3, we saw that Jesus was actually dunked under the water. So, we "dunked" our cookies in our milk to get the idea of immersion. They are greatly looking forward to our next observance of the Lord's Supper as a church family, now, too. What has delighted me most is that they are really "getting it." I'm so pleased with the thoughts they are putting into the things we do and write about faith in Christ. Best of all, they're finding that following Christ can be a lot of fun. 

So, giggle away boys. I'd rather walk the journey of faith with a couple of kids who can't stop laughing, than a whole church of people who are too "pious" to be glad about the love and grace of God. I fully believe Jesus got bit by the silly bug and giggled from time to time, too. In fact, I think he was giggling with us, today.