Little Hands - Little Feet by Pamela McCormick

It was a rainy, messy day. I was scheduled to teach children’s church that evening. The story was Daniel in the Lion’s Den, and I had a craft and snack planned for the children to make lion faces with peanut butter, rice cakes, purple gummy worms, cookie eyes, and curly pretzels for the mane. I went to four stores to get all I needed. I couldn’t understand why I put the curly pretzels back and got stick pretzels instead. And the rice cakes; I couldn’t find any, so I grabbed honey graham crackers. Little did I know God had plans to teach this teacher using a nine-year-old child.

Before the lesson started, the children were all talking about Easter and the candy that they would be getting on Sunday. One boy said, “I don’t know why we use bunnies when we talk about Easter.” I didn’t think much about what he had said, but I would learn more as the night progressed. At the beginning of the lesson, I asked this same boy to assume a kneeling position in the middle of a circle while the other children and I roared loudly. I told the children not to laugh, but a few giggles happened anyhow. We roared, and this little boy kept his head down as if he was praying. He never showed any fear. True, there were no real lions, but this child assumed the person of Daniel. He remained knelt with his head bowed down.

When the lesson started, I asked the children if they had ever been laughed at when they prayed. Again, this boy spoke up. He said, “Miss Pam, I was eating lunch in the cafeteria with my friends, and a little black boy sat down and started praying over his food. My friends started laughing at him, and I told them they sure better talk to Jesus about that.” Then he went over to sit next to the boy that was laughed at. The next day, his friends came back and apologized to both of them for laughing. It gets even better than that. God was so good this night.

All the children started creating their lion faces. They all did a fantastic job, and I wanted to munch down on what they created. Unbeknownst to me, that same little boy turned to me and said, “Miss Pam, look what I made.” I was totally in awe of his creation. He had taken the graham crackers and broken them and made a cross. The purple gummy worms were draped over the sides of the cross. He took peanut butter and made a ring at the top and broke the stick pretzels to form the thorns in Jesus’ crown and broke other pretzels, putting them in Jesus’ hands and feet. He drew a picture of Jesus’ body on the graham cracker and put a little hill at the bottom of the cross because he wanted to lift Jesus up. Using a red magic marker he made a pool of blood in the edges of the inverted paper plate, and I stood there speechless.

I wish I had taken a picture, but that child’s cross will forever remain in my mind.

Thank you, Chase. Your little hands and little feet helped me see Jesus up close and personal. Thank You, God, for using a little boy to get your message across to me and this entire world about what You did for everyone.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him, would not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 KJV)

Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. (Genesis 1:9 NKJV)

Photo by Karen Ruhl

Photo by Karen Ruhl

Pam McCormick is an aspiring writer who recently retired from teaching in the public school and community college setting and still enjoys tutoring Algebra at the local library. Pam had a story, “The End,” published in Isothermal’s magazine, The Mentor, in December, 2014. Pam was also published in December 2016 in collaboration with eight other authors to write a devotional book, Ancient Stones Timeless Encouragement. Pam is a member of the Encouragers’ Christian Writers’ Group that meets monthly. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and tent camping with her husband, watching old time westerns, doing crossword puzzles and spending time with her daughter in Kentucky and her son, his wife and granddaughters, Merryn and Charlotte in Fuquay-Varina. Every other Sunday, she visits a nursing home and teaches a Bible study, feeling very blessed by God for this divine opportunity to share her love for her Savior. You can contact her at pjmc411@gmail.com.