Shall We Dance?

On Saturday evening I muddled my way through "waiting table" at our annual Roast Beef dinner. As the folk at the first sitting dispersed and the turn-around clean-up began a girl who was born not long before I arrived at St. Paul's tugged at my pant leg: "David, have you seen my Dad?" From my loftier vantage point I spotted him across the room and pointed her in the right direction. She ran toward him, stopped, came back and hugged me before making her way to her father.

At the second sitting we ate and another little girl with impossibly beautiful brown eyes came to our table and told me shyly that she got up and danced at the children's concert sponsored by St. Paul's in the afternoon. These two little incidents made my day, not to mention melted my heart.

The spontaneity and openness and generosity of children is such a lovely gift of grace. I talked to a colleague in ministry a while ago who was in a church where there were hardly any children and she felt such a sense of loss. I understand completely.

The God who came to us as a child still comes to us in the freshness of these little pilgrims on the spiritual journey. They constantly teach us and inspire us to dance in our spirits.