This Week in Church: Jesus, food, and children

Welcome to the series wherein I share my take-aways from church. The things that, I think, are beneficial to all of us to know or think about, whether or not we believe in any church-related things.


This week I got to church late and was feeling pretty disengaged. It was a different kind of service: instead of a sermon, they asked the congregation to share things they had learned that week about Jesus/the Bible/God/etc. They had some more eloquent questions than that posted on the screens for us to ponder, but that was the gist of it.

This week in church a child talked about Jesus and food.

Perhaps my favourite part was when the children were being surveyed about things they had learned about Jesus from the Bible. One little girl says (paraphrased): "Jesus liked to eat. There are lots of parts of the Bible that talk about Jesus eating. I really identify with that."

I mean, COME ON!!!?!?! Best kid ever, right?

Also, thumbs up for finding everyday, human ways to identify with Jesus. Let's not reduce our day-to-day joys to something silly or base. The way I'm digging on peanut butter and apple lately is DIVINE.

This week in church I watched some kids go bonkers.

Apparently this week was all about the children. Because I arrived late, I had to sit in the very back, which is sort of the "run-amok" area for children and parents bouncing their babies. Normally I would find it distracting, and maybe a bit annoying, to sit back there. Hearing the messages is kind of important to me.

This time, however, I wan't too concerned with following the through line of everyone's comments. Plus, I was tired and my brain was distracted enough without the interference of the kids. Instead, I watched them play.

There was something kind of meditative and beautiful in that. The toddlers toddled around, older kids would pick them up and play parent or run around with each other. Right next to me was a father with three boys. I see him almost every Sunday, and the whole family is a picture of stylish adorableness. The boys are both well-behaved and incredibly rambunctious. This week was rambunctious. They were crawling all over their dad, running around, tackling him and each other. Mostly, he just let them do their thing, reigning them in when they got too loud or crazy, and let them climb all over him. He interacted a bit, but mostly just had a bit of a smile on his face as he watched the service and his boys. It was really beautiful.

Maybe that is one picture of what God the Father can be like: just chilling and letting us do our wacky thing.


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