Come to the altar.

The weekend of the children's Christmas performance at church is always a monumental one. The seats fill up with expectant parents and extended family members who can hardly hold their excitement as the children who have been practicing their lines for months prepare for the day of delivery. Scenes of a manger beckon to be surrounded by the baby Jesus and the camaraderie that he brings. The children take a bow as the audience delivers a standing ovation and the director and and her helpers take a deep breath of relief that no child fell off the stage or needed to go to the bathroom moments before delivering lines. It is truly a magical service.

After the program, the children occupied two rows reserved for them until their parents picked them up after a short message was delivered. It was during this time that the true magic of the service happened.  I will say that usually when the kids are in the service, it is during worship and because they are seated far from where I stand on the stage, I usually don't see if this is a regular occurance or not. But today, God gave me a  gift that came in the form of children in complete surrender to the beckon of the altar. The first time it happened, the pastor led his message with a prayer and the children stood up from their seats and lined the altar with their bodies, and the heavens with their praises. It happened a second time when the pastor prayed the service out, albeit a smaller group the second time around. I praised God for allowing these kids to push past the common altar call and simply dash forward as if to say, "I am here Lord. Your servant is listening." Sound familiar? (Story of Samuel in the Bible)

"Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at his disposition, and listening to His voice in the depths of our hearts." (Mother Teresa)

Many times, I pray about the things I see a lot. I pray that God would deliver the addict from the sickness that they suffer from. I pray for the soldier who suffers with PTSD who is trying to support a family while dealing wih the trauma of things from the past.  I pray for the family who wonders where they will spend Christmas. There are plenty of things that I lay at the cross daily and I thank God for always hearing my prayers, even when my unbelieving mind struggles to believe what my heart knows to be true.

But today, I learned from the smallest prayer warriors, that I need the faith of a child. The kind of faith that comes with no filters, no expectations; just simply the urge to throw myself at the foot of the cross and bask in the glory of the God who calls me there.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

  — Matthew 18:1-5