Call It What You Want...

What a day to have a kiddo. Mark got to go to the nursery this morning during church after carrying on through the WHOLE children's sermon. The person giving the sermon (a very nice mom of 3) said he should have come down front, because her group was pretty quiet. It would have at least been some talking. Another of his friends at church said she'd have sworn he was singing. She was right. He was. At the top of his little lungs. That's my boy...

There was a small insulin emergency at the back of the sanctuary at the end of service, so off we went to the congregational forum in the fellowship hall. Fun times for all. Lots of changes, rocky times in the church these last several months, so it was a meeting designed to "clear the air." Our 4-year-old friend Olivia was with us as her mommy (who has the spiritual gift of mercy printed all over her) was helping out with the emergency in the sanctuary, and Olivia, well, wasn't. So Olivia and Mark gave ME an excuse to step out of the meeting. I had to take them somewhere to play, you know.

I took the two kiddos down to the nursery, where we joined quite a hoarde, along with another pair of adults -- who weren't scheduled to be in the nursery for the 9:30 hour either. There were LOTS of kids there who had been funneled OUT of the sanctuary to make room for the paramedics and to take embarrassing attention away from the sick man. So it seemed a good idea for me to stay. Mark got to swing on the swing, I helped supervise the playground, all was good.

We stayed in the nursery until Olivia's mommy came to take her home (and reported that all was okay with the diabetic friend). Then two reponsible and helpful young ladies came to the nursery to help out (me when I was that age, and a sidekick) and Mark and I headed back to the meeting.

We slipped in and joined Tim at the side, and Keith began talking about the plans for building. Things had been pretty tense. There were some difficult things that were being addressed, some hurts, some concerns, indeed. They were still tense. We'd only been in there a few minutes when Mark (wonder where he got this?) started talking -- loudly. All the men who go to Saturday morning Bible study know Mark -- and his voice. Keith stopped in mid-thought and said "Is that Mark?" and everyone laughed.

We left shortly thereafter as the meeting was winding down. As we went by Keith, I apologized for my boy interrupting him. "Ah, we needed the levity," he said. "It was perfect timing."

"Out of the mouths of babes," commented a former council member and current mayor of our fair city. "He knew just when to start talking."

Hmmm. Wonder where he got it?