Because that was you once...

"Whoever receives this little child in My name 

receives Me"

Luke 9:48

Amazing Boy with his cousin, who's crazy about him.

My Amazing Boy is the youngest in our family, so that's the role I get to see him playing 90% of the time.   When he's with his friends, he's not the youngest ~ he's just one of the kids; and on his baseball team he often rises to a bit of a leadership role, as he loves baseball and has been playing for years.  But even so, he's pretty much the same age as the rest of the boys.  Once in a while, I get the chance to see him in a different light.  For instance, when my sister and her family come in town, he gets to hang out with his younger cousin.

Well, recently, Amazing Boy and I helped out watching some five-year-olds while their moms were studying the Bible, and he took on the role of "big brother" to these kids.  He'd never met any of them before, but I got distracted helping out one little one, and when I looked up again a minute later, Amazing Boy was playing ball with the other kids.  He'd even invented a variation on basketball that helped to occupy notoriously short five-year-old attention spans!   He worked puzzles, built block towers and played play-dough.  When it was snack-time, he doled out anti-bacterial gel, then distributed water and crackers all around.  (No, I wasn't in the corner doing my nails, I was cleaning up after them when they moved on to something else.  But thanks for asking.)

I didn't ask him to do any of these things.  He had brought a book, and I would have been fine with him sitting and reading unless the kids got out of hand, but he just jumped in.

Now, I think if I asked him, he'd say he wasn't particularly interested in interacting with five-year-olds.  Wait ~ I'll ask him:  okay, he said that it was "kinda weird" cuz he wasn't really playing with them, he was following their lead.  And no, he wasn't that "interested" in playing with them, but yes, he'd do it again if I needed him to.  (See how amazing he is?)

But here's here's what struck me about the whole thing.  Several years ago, that was him.  He was the five-year-old, and someone sat down to play play-dough with him, or read to him, or play cars with him. And my heart did a little flip-flop when I saw he sweet he was being.  And I thought, "this must be how God feels."  How He must love it when we do for someone what someone once did for us!  It's like the Golden Rule, but in reverse.  "Do unto others as someone once did unto you."   I think it's something that lots of us do automatically ~ those who have suffered from an addiction might go into counseling to help others... or someone who has beaten cancer might run in a 5K to raise money to help others.   But maybe others of us need to do it purposefully.  That might be a good prayer conversation to have with God.  To ask Him to help us to look back at our past, and how we've grown, and then show us if there's a way to help someone else grow, too.

~ "Therefore, encourage one another

and build each other up,

just as in fact you are doing." ~

Luke 6:31