Small Beginnings

Gò0dNews for Everyone

Small Beginnings

by Sandra Gilmore

Have you been following this series? Check each month as we explore often-overlooked connections to Christmas and wind our way back to this sacred event.

It’s simply hard to tell. It’s hard to look too far ahead. It might not turn out like it starts. So go the thoughts of anyone who has worked with children or youth.

The same child who eats the glue could be on her way to gluing folks back together in an ER or filling her role binding a family together while odds predict otherwise. The same child who has a speech impairment could have days ahead in the pulpit or at a keyboard where inspiring words flow. The very child who hits, squeals, and throws things might be the counselor who coaches others to tout emotions effectively. We just don’t know what the Lord has planned for these little ones.

Just after the first Christmas, Joseph’s family fled the Bethlehem region for Egypt during Jesus’ nursery days. What if Mary had dropped off Jesus at the nursery while you were serving on Sabbath? Would you have asked them to fill out a visitor card? Who would be the contact? Joseph was the stepfather, and then again…you could hear him sheepishly explaining, “Well no, I’m the father but…well, it’s kinda complicated, ya see?”

What would you have seen? You would have seen an uprooted family who didn’t speak the language, know the culture, or plan to stay long in the area. Yet, they didn’t have a return-home date either. Those three were making limbo work, stalling in place with a child who was anything but stagnant. (Tots grow and change by the hours!) Given the awkward parenting roles and transplanted housing situation, would they have still found a warm reception in your nursery?

Just as God planned for salvation through the birth of Jesus, He has a plan for our days, (Psalm 139) “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed, And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Have you considered that you—as a nursery or children’s church worker—are fashioned into that design? You have a talent, bent, quirk about you that the Lord wants to weave into the design of the children in your care. Beyond the diaper changes, the calming rhythm of the rocking chair, or the cadence of reading a favorite book, you will leave a seed deep in the children in your care. Were it hope or creativity, silliness or stability, the seed will do what seeds

do and bloom someday, given the right set of circumstances. (Never worked in nursery or with young folks? Maybe this is your sign to start!)

These blessings in baby form are, in fact, purposebearers equipped with destiny and divine provision for their journeys. Children, as descendants and members of their family trees, serve as links from one branch of mankind to another, sharing shade and fruit, witnessing changing seasons and life cycles. What an honor that the Lord trusts us to care for such a tender treasure in His Kingdom. Per Zechariah 4:10 we can “curse not the day of small beginnings.” We can surely bless—plant seeds, nurture, strengthen, delight in—these small wonders!

About The Author Sandra Gilmore serves the Lord as wife, mom, and encourager, mostly through writing and speaking, occasionally through cooking, rarely through anything athletic and only because of the mercy and grace of Jesus. You can reach her by email: tandsgilmore@yahoo.com or her website: www.sandragilmore.org