This past week I helped with Vacation Bible School at our church, VBS as it’s called for short. To my alarm, this year I was put in charge of nearly a dozen three-year-olds. Teaching tots is not my gift. I much prefer walking college kids through God’s word. The good news was that I didn’t have to teach these little ones the Bible. Someone else did the teaching. I was put in charge of receiving these tiny students from their parents and guiding them from class, to games, to snack, to the bathroom, and back to class, and then returning them to their parents several hours later.
The first morning I held a sobbing boy in my arms, while two teary-eyed girls clung to my legs, and several more youngsters with quivering lips stood as close to me as possible while their parents hurried off. I’d just left my own five-year-old looking on the verge of tears in his group across the room, and I was thinking, I wonder if the Crusades started out this way? All this angst in the church can’t be good…
In the past I’ve always worked VBS registration or with the older VBS kids who, for the most part, seem happy to be there. So these tears were a new experience for me. I thought perhaps our class motto could be, “Melting down for Jesus.”
The bright spot of the first day happened during craft time. Tears had dried, but smiles were slow in coming. The boy, Hayden, who had sobbed against my chest upon drop off, sat stoically, holding a crayon in his hand, but not doing much with it. Beside him a very quiet little girl named Lily colored. She looked about as happy to be at VBS as Hayden.
“Lily,” I said. “What a lovely picture you are making.”
Lily looked at me with penetrating eyes. Measuring me for honesty, I decided. “Really,” I assured her. “You picked the perfect color for Jesus’ face. That yellow makes his face all golden. I like that.”
A glimpse of a smile crossed Lily’s lips. Hayden was watching me too with courtroom eyes. Boy, these three-year-olds were tough nuts to crack.
“You’re doing a great job too, Hayden,” I said. “That one line of blue is the perfect way to begin your picture.”
And here is where the beauty began: Lily unexpectedly gave Hayden her undivided attention. “I like your picture,” she told him. “Put more blue on it.”
Talk about parting the Red Sea. Hayden began scribbling a Mona Lisa. Lily continued to cheer him on, and grace flowed. Under Lily’s praise and appreciation, Hayden became quite the little man. He sat up straighter. His eyes shined. Lily was suddenly his everything. He was drawing to please her, and in that moment, I realized that I needed to encourage my husband more in this life.
The next day when Hayden and Lily showed up for VBS, it didn’t take them long to again lean on each other for comfort and support. I found this so sweet, and I was reminded that a husband and wife should be that for each other… a comfort and support in this world.
I don’t know how many of you would agree with me that marriage is kind of like VBS. It starts out with singing, the wedding, right? Then there’s the first class, you learn something easy like Noah’s ark and how to brush your teeth together. Then you play some games, golf seems pretty popular with couples, then you head back to class for more instruction because the games don’t always go so well. Especially when men do the golfing and wives get stuck watching the kiddos.
Then there is the second classroom visit. This one’s more serious. You learn that you are a sinner and Jesus died for you. No wonder marriage is hard sometimes. By now, Lily is leaning her head on Hayden’s shoulder during Bible time and he’s stiff as plaster trying to hold her up.
The last day of VBS, Hayden and Lily breeze through the routine together. What was so big and scary a few days ago for these three-year-olds is now a great bond between them. Hayden gives the craft he worked so hard on to Lily when he’s finished, and again they sit practically on top of each other during class time.
I love how it was God who thought this whole thing up in the beginning. Like Hayden on that first lonely day at VBS, Adam was trudging through the garden when God decided he needed a helpmate.
Bam… there was Lily… I mean Eve… I mean me.
Thank you, young Hayden and Lily for reminding me that God made woman to get her man through VBS.