Just when you think you’re getting a handle on the terrible twos you have a humbling experience like I did the other night. My husband Brian was playing guitar for church so I was wrangling all three of our little ones and apparently not keeping quite a close enough eye on my little trouble maker middle child. When I turned around to see what he was up to I found him with a hunk of bread in his mouth. It took me a minute to process that my child had just walked up to the table at the front of the church and taken a big bite out of the Communion loaf that had been lovingly set out for the evening. While our Presbyterian church is fully embracing of infant baptism, I’m not sure we’re quite ready to accept toddler Communion just yet. I’m so thankful for a pastor who has grace enough for my little ones that he just turned the loaf around so no one could see the tell-tale bite marks. At least until the moment in the service that he held it up to break the bread in front of the congregation. I wanted to melt into my pew.
But that’s the thing about grace, isn’t it? Our sin is there, so easily visible- a big bite out of the Communion loaf, a big stain on our conscience, a big break in our fellowship with The Lord and His Body. God’s grace takes what is so embarrassing and shameful to us and finds a way to make it beautiful, to use it for His glory. The sins and pain in my life now reveal a God who is big enough to heal and powerful enough to change the person I was into the person He wants me to be. I’m not sure if Little Danny ate the bread in an unworthy manner that night, but I hope God has grace for that, too. And ultimately I hope Danny comes to understand God’s forgiveness in an intimate way that covers his sin and takes away the shame. I can’t wait for the day when with full understanding we help him take Communion in acknowledgement of the sacrificial love that was shown for him. And hopefully by then everybody will have forgotten about his first First Communion.