Which Lesson Was Learned
She seemed like a very sweet little girl. From her actions, it seemed obvious to me that she was not in the habit of attending a worship service – at least not on a regular basis. At various times, she looked at the young lady sitting next to her. Her expression seemed to ask a question. The question may have been, “What does this mean?” It could have been, “What are we doing now?” It was obvious to me that, if it was not one of those two questions, it was something like one of them. It also seemed very obvious to me that she was genuinely interested.
I watched as the lady bent down to whisper something to the girl in what looked like an attempt to help her understand. My first thought was along the lines of how sweet it was to watch somebody who is a little older try to help somebody like the little girl understand something as important as worshiping God.
Unfortunately, my brain kicked in later. As I reflected on what I had seen, I thought about how few times I see the “mentor” at one of our worship services. She’s with us sometimes, but not on a regular basis. I can’t help but wonder if the little girl learned as much from the whispered information as she learns from the fairly frequent absences of her “instructor.”
Whether we like it or not, we often teach much, much more by our actions (and inactions) than we do by our words. I don’t know whether or not we sang Jesus is All the World to Me that particular Sunday morning or not. If we did, I wonder what the little girl thought on the next Sunday when there was no apparent attempt to worship Him.
When our Lord was on the earth, it seems that he had a special affinity for small children. You may remember that, at one point, His disciples attempted to keep people from bringing them to Him and received a rebuke from Him for doing so.
At the same time, there seems to be something really special about the teachable, pliable, and innocent hearts of little ones. It is a special experience to see their eyes light up with wonder and amazement as they hear about Jesus.
Not long ago, I taught a Bible class in which my students were seventh through ninth grade boys. I wonder if they believed me when I told them that, even at their age, there were those who were looking up to them. Whether they believed it or not, it is true. All of us have somebody looking to us as an example, for guidance, and so many other things.
They may or may not be listening, but they definitely are watching. So is our Lord.
AUTHOR: Jim Faughn
