At my church we have a program to keep younger children occupied during the service. This is a program separate from Sunday school. Several of us rotate the responsibility of what we call Childrens’ Church.
Last Sunday was my turn to shepherd the children during the service. I was ready with a Bible story, a craft, and a snack of sliced apples. Turned out, there was only one child in church young enough to participate. So her grandma and I gave her the choice of doing Childrens’ Church. She said Yes, so we invaded the Sunday school area, the two of us.
The young lady was full of friendly chatter about life with her cousins, her family, and her huge pit bull. “He weighs 85 pounds, but he has lots more growing to do!” Then we covered the Bible story, about rejoicing with friends when good happens to them. We closed with a short prayer of thanks and more conversation.
Sunday afternoons can be long now that I’m alone. On this day, however, the glow from this friendly encounter (and a couple of others at church) lasted all day! It was as if God was beside me saying, “You’ve got family!”