It is the day after as I write this, and I am still chuckling.
My family and I are holding a revival meeting for a wonderful yet small church so far off the beaten path that you cannot get there by accident. In this particular meeting, in addition to me preaching, my family I are providing much of the special music.
But not all of it.
Several men from the church were called up to sing, and they brought a tiny little boy with them. In his tiny hands, the microphone he held seemed huge. They handed him his microphone first, then they all turned around to secure their own mikes. And that small window of opportunity was all the young song bird needed.
“Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells! Jingle all the way”
For a brief second, there were gasps, but the tot was doing great and was not to be deterred.
“Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh, HEY! Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way, oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh.”
A couple of seconds afterward, he launched into an amazing rendition of “Jesus Loves Me,” but not before I had time to shout a hearty”Amen!” at his heart-felt singing of “Jingle Bells.” I am not at all concerned with the possibility that some reader may write me off as unspiritual over this, but I believe that, if you hear me out, you will not do so. Allow me to explain.
If an adult flippantly decided to sing “Jingle Bells” as a church special, I would not likely say “amen.” But this tiny tot does not know that “Jingle Bells” and “Jesus Loves Me” are in categories that are somewhat distant one from the other. All he knows is he loves the Lord, and he wants to sing for him. His song was an all-out, top-of-his-lungs, smile-on-his-face offering to the Lord. He sang “Jingle Bells” the way all adults ought to sing “Amazing Grace” or “The Old Rugged Cross” or any other hymn of the faith.
It is quite easy, after being saved for many years, to become complacent about things. We sing of heaven as if we are not going; we sing of our sins being washed away as if we were still bound down in those sins; we sing “How Great Thou Art” as if God is not really very great at all.
Everything we do during a service is an offering to the Lord. Every song, every moment of fellowship, every “amen,” every monetary offering, the way we sit, the way we listen to the preaching – all of it is to be done with all of our heart. Any adult who sings and worships half-heartedly need not be condescending toward that “Jingle Bells” singing tot; their sin of apathy is far worse than his unrealized breach of protocol.
After that little boy sang, there was a marked difference in the congregational singing. Everyone was smiling; there was good volume; every person seemed to be singing from the heart. If I knew for a fact it would always have the same result, I would ask him to come with me everywhere I preach and sing that same song.
It could be worse; it could have been “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.”
Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, N.C., and the author of several books that are available at wordofhismouth.com. Contact him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.