Behold Your Little Ones

I wrote last week about the callings I have in church and said I would write about Gretch's callings this week. However, I've changed my mind due to events that happened in church this afternoon. If you were looking forward to reading today about what Gretch does in church, I apologise. I'll get around to it eventually. Besides, this post is somewhat related.

Today was the annual children's Sacrament meeting presentation in church. For those who are not familiar, Sacrament meetings are the general congregational meeting in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Instead of having a minister, priest, or pastor deliver a sermon, members of the congregation are invited to deliver brief messages (talks), usually 5-15 minutes in length. But once a year, the meeting is turned over to the children in the Primary, who share what they have been learning all year through brief messages (30 seconds to 3 minutes) and songs.

The program is outlined in general terms by the General Primary Presidency in Salt Lake City, Utah (where the LDS church headquarters are located), and then adapted to local needs. There are several themes that are taught in Primary throughout the year, typically in month-long units. As mentioned last week, I teach the oldest children in the Primary in our ward (congregation). The students in my class were invited to write brief talks related to each of these monthly themes. Then the younger children shared personal experiences related to the topics. Each topic was separated by a song that the children all sang together.

For several months, Gretch taught the youngest children in the Primary (other than those in the Nursery), called the Sunbeams class. She is no longer teaching them (more on this at a later day), but she still feels a particular connection with the sweet three-year-olds she taught. So both of us have a deep personal interest in the annual Primary Sacrament meeting presentation and have spent months learning the songs along with the children and helping them practice their lines!

During the program, all of the children and their teachers were sitting on the raised platform, called the stand, at the front of the chapel. This isn't exactly what our chapel looks like, but it is fairly similar:

While the children sang and gave their talks, I watched the congregation. I noted that nearly every single person was watching the children, listening to their simple messages, and giving smiles of encouragement. How different from last week, when I was on the stand with our choir and noticed that only about 20 or 25 people out of the 125 or so present, were actively listening! (Admittedly, many of the others were busy attending to their children.) Still, the difference was stark. There is clearly something about listening to children stumble through words and sing off-key that attracts the attention of parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends that doesn't happen when adults are speaking!

My five kids gave great talks. They spoke from their hearts and shared simple testimonies of faith in Christ and a belief in God's love for them. The singing wasn't perfect, but the Spirit of the Lord was present as hearts and minds were turned toward love for our Saviour and the little ones he has sent to us.

As it turned out, my Sunday School lesson today aligned perfectly with this wonderful event. Our class has been studying The Book of Mormon and we are at the point in the text where Jesus Christ personally visited the people of the Americas after his death and resurrection. In the story, the Saviour taught the people the same basic doctrines he'd taught in and around Jerusalem, such as the Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer, and the Lord's Supper. He taught the people of baptism and He organised the church in a similar way as he had in the Old World. Then He tells the people gathered in the land of Bountiful that He must leave, but that He would be back. But the people present long for Him to stay, and so He stays for a while longer, blessing their sick and infirm, then praying for them. Then He calls all of their children to Him and blesses them one by one and then prays for them specifically. And then this beautiful, simple phrase is found in 3 Nephi 17:23: Behold your little ones.

As I was teaching, it hit me: That was exactly what we as a congregation had done today. And while I have attempted to describe what happened, I know that I haven't fully explained it. But I think that is the way of things of the soul. We know what we heard, we know how we felt, but words cannot fully express it. But we know it, and we know that they know it.