Matt Mings on The Grace that Goes Before
This past Holy Week was a wonderful time for our household for many reasons: rehearsing the The Big Story, celebrating Jesus’ life, remembering our own story, seeing the potential of this local church to be used of God, and so on. If you missed the Good Friday Drop-by Prayer and Communion, I encourage you to make it next year. You never know what will happen!
For instance … I was of course available the whole time, praying with familiies and individuals, and administering the sacrament of Holy Communion. At one point Heather and Eliot (my wife and 2-year old son) came in. We were the only ones there at the time. Heather and Eliot knelt at the altar where I met them. It was an odd but exciting role to be the pastor and also the husband and father. Heather and I had not really discussed whether Eliot would receive Communion or not. In our tradition, age is no barrier, nor is status with God: we believe the Lord’s Table is open to everyone. But still, as a parent, you want your child to know what is going on. So Heather and I talked to Eliot about the wine and bread (“the juice and cracker� as we described it to him). We told Eliot that Jesus loves him very much and when we eat the cracker and drink the juice we are hugged by Jesus. We remember that Jesus was like us and still God and he loves us. Eliot ate the cracker and drank the juice, as did we. With all three of us feasting at the Lord’s Table we prayed as a family: we thanked God for already working in Eliot’s life; we prayed that what Eliot had just received would be communicated to him by the Holy Spirit over the years to come; we prayed that Eliot would one day respond to Christ’s grace in his life.
Those were incredibly sacred moments. After Heather and Eliot left, I had a few moments alone. At first I wondered what I had just done: administered the sacrament of Holy Communion to a 2 year old! But then, I was reminded that it was almost 2 years to the day that Eliot was baptized, and now he had eaten at the Lord’s Table. I was reminded in a profound way that God was and is already at work in Eliot’s life. I was reminded that the grace and love of Jesus were already surrounding our young son. I was reminded that I serve a God who loves us so much that God comes to where we are and offers grace, hope, and love before we’re even aware that God loves us!
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Category: Family, Sacramental Living Comment »