Friday, February 5, 2010

Lessons in Student Ministry: Moments that make my heart smile

Barbara...one of the sweetest, most kind-hearted and precious middle schoolers I have ever met in my life. One of those kids who really just gets it. One of those kids that you can never imagine has done anything “wrong” in her life, but will be the first to tell you that she feels a drastic change in who she is since really beginning to get to know Jesus.

Last night one of our girls was talking about the sin in our lives and said, “We're just all so...dirty.” I said, “Well, can you ever be too dirty for God?”

Two of my girls looked at each other, looked at me, kind of shook their heads in the safe diagonal motion that could be perceived as a yes nod or a no shake.

And then Barbara said, “Well, I don't know if this is really the answer to your question. But, when I was the age that I really started not just knowing about Jesus, but actually knowing Him, I did a lot of needlepoint. One day I realized that when I did them, the back of the needlepoint was always knotty and just messy looking. But when I turned it over, I could see a picture. It didn't mean there weren't still a lot of mistakes. I still had knots where they didn't belong. Or I had mixed up colors. But I could still see the picture. I think that's kind of what life is like if we have God. There's still mistakes, or parts that aren't right, but we can see a bigger picture and things make more sense. But if we don't have God, it's like the back where it's just a mess. We can't be too dirty for Him. He makes things better.”

Moments that make my heart smile...

2 comments:

Piland Family said...

That's the sweetest (and most insightful) thing ever. love it. love you.

Anonymous said...

Wow, that is a lovely analogy! What a bright girl! :) Love you Jen.