run to Jesus, give him your heart

For months now, we've been having lots of conversations about Jesus. Maddie always wants to discuss the stories from her Bible and has lots of deep, introspective questions (and lots of others that aren't so deep, like, Did Jesus really have a beard?)

She knows that her Daddy tells people about Jesus, yet you don't have to be a pastor to share the good news about God, and that all of us have been given that responsibility. Lately she's taken to instructing Sam in all sorts of things (i.e., feeding the dog, coloring, using the potty), but also in discipling him about the love of Jesus.

A few nights ago she was singing a song from church and school. The lyrics are:

Jump, jump, jump into the light, light, light

Run, run, run away from what's not right

Jump, jump, jump out of the dark, dark, dark

Run to Jesus, Give him your heart

Maddie had all kinds of questions about the lyrics. She thought they said something about running away from Jesus but him still loving us. We sang the song over and over, talking about each of the phrases. I explained how running away from what's not right is really hard, and we need Jesus to help us make the right decisions.

A few days earlier, she had noticed on her charm bracelet (a present from the church pastors and staff) a little girl on her knees in prayer. We talked about how she was kneeling because God is our ruler and king and we bow down in obedience, love and honor.

I put the two conversations together and basically shared again how we can pray anytime to give Jesus our whole heart, to let him know how much we love him, and to ask him to be ruler and king over our lives. Maddie thought for a moment, and then closed her eyes, folded her hands and prayed:

"Dear God, I want to give you my whole heart. I want you to be my ruler and my king. I love you so much. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for giving me everything I need. Take care of the homeless people and give them food and homes. Amen."

My heart sighed. My eyes filled with tears. So heartfelt and so sweet, and the culmination of a million different conversations over many, many nights. This morning when she climbed into bed, snuggled up into my arms, and laid down, she said, "My heart is just so joyful today."

A neighbor of ours (coincidentally, Jewish) gave us a large portrait of Jesus yesterday. This morning I overheard Maddie say to Sam, "That's Jesus, Bud. He's our ruler and our king. You can give him your whole heart, Bud. You can! We're going to live in heaven with him forever!" Spoken with such tenderness and also such authority, our very own three year-old is sharing the good news of the gospel with her brother. It's amazing.