Learning from a little one

As those of you who read this blog frequently know, my home church is not doing well. On Thursday, the council voted to recommend that the congregation close in early June. As saddening as this news is, today I was privileged to see into a heart of faith.

I have long believed that children have a special kind of faith that adults just cannot seem to capture. They have a simple, unquestioning faith that makes decisions about faith quite clear. My congregation is currently tens of thousands short of budget. Many of the adults in the congregation have given up, resigned to the closure of the church.

Let me introduce you to a child I will call Alex. Alex is about eight years old. He is mildly autistic. This causes him to speak with a lisp and to walk with a disjointed gate. This morning, just as worship was set to begin, Alex came charging toward the front of the sincere. In his small hands he tightly clenched an old margarine container. The container jingled gently as he came down the center aisle. It was filled with coins, coins from his piggy bank. You see, Alex's mom is on church council and after the meeting on Thursday, she sat him down to explain to him that the church was going to close because it did not have enough money.

Alex came to church this morning set to do what he could to save the church. As an adult who has a reasonable understanding of finances, I know that his change is not going to impact the church's finances in any meaningful way. I am, however, reminded of the widow who gave her final two coins. If we, as the adults could learn from Alex, maybe the church would not close.