Church pew crawl.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these”. ——–Matthew 19:14

During church service today, I lost one of our kids. My husband was working in the sound booth and I was checking attendance, so it was a perfect time for our youngest to make his escape. With a little searching, I found his pink sandals sticking out from beneath a pew. He had crawled on the floor, under the pews, at least 5 rows back. Then, he crawled in the opposite direction, past me, and forward two pews. Once he found an acceptable pew, he climbed up, and curled up like it was a bed.

In an effort to help children act in the ways we prefer, I think we miss that maybe they’re acting just as they should. What if that pew was like Jesus’ lap? What if we all need to curl up in a church pew and just listen, be held by the music, rocked to sleep by the stillness? What if church was safe enough that we could crawl all over the floor until we found the right spot, the safest spot to be ourselves? At first, I wanted to scold him, but I stopped myself. Was he actually doing anything wrong? No one was being harmed and he wasn’t disrupting the service. He was participating in the way he needed to and was able to in that moment, and I’m glad I didn’t say anything. Had I prevented him from continuing his pew crawl, I might have broken something beautiful.

This verse in Matthew is written in present tense. With that in mind, please consider the love this suggests. My son did nothing today other than be himself, play the way he likes to, fidget and doodle, and take up half a church pew–but the kingdom of heaven is his.