"Dancing in the Dark"

Throughout my time in the church, I have spent most of my service in children’s ministries. I cuddled the babies, sang to 3 year olds and taught bible lessons in Sunday School and Children’s Church. I remember teaching the words and movements to “Deep and Wide” and “Zaccheus was a Wee Little Man“. I can recall the stories I told to the kids using flannel boards with little flannel figures. I remember the giggles I got as I passed out treats and I can still see little heads bowed as we prayed. Sometimes I felt well prepared with visuals to display the great stories of David and Goliath or Jonah and the Whale but sometimes I had barely made it to church with my own car full of kids. I’m sure my harried appearance was apparent to even the youngest of them. The children I ministered to in those days are adults now and for the most part I don’t know what they took from my little Sunday School class. I call that time “dancing in the dark”! Imagine yourself dancing, you twirl around, do the two-step and maybe throw in a little “soft shoe” but when you look out, you see no faces only darkness. You might wonder if they are frowning or smiling, and with only the sounds of your own feet tapping on the floor, you can’t hear the applause or hear their approval but still you dance. Sometimes you might discourage at the silence but God assures you that he still has a plan, so you keep dancing. I remember reading a story of a missionary family who went for years without a single convert but at great price to themselves they continued to “dance” even in the darkness of their trials. They claimed the promise of Isaiah 55:11

...my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

As each of these children left my class to go to another, they went with my hopes and prayers. As new student entered my class for the first time, I began my dance again.

As I checked out Facebook one morning I noticed that I had a friendship request. Since I can use all the friends I can get, I clicked and found that a woman named Susan wanted to be my friend. I remembered her as a shy little girl from a great family of the church. She was very well behaved and much quieter than her fellow students. The next day I was delighted to get the sweetest message from her. She caught me up on her parents and a bit of her own life but she then told me something that blesses me even now as I write this. She said that she accepted the Lord as her Savior one Sunday morning in my Sunday School class, as I asked the children to bow their heads and pray. I wondered briefly if it was one of my organized days or one of my disheveled days. But right out of the darkness was the beautiful face of Susan, out of the silence was the applause of angels not for me but for this one who came to the Lord. On that morning, I knew that God’s words never comes back without doing what they were sent to do. It was worth those harried days, those rowdy kids hiding under the table as I gave my lesson, and it was definitely worth my “dancing in the dark”!

Thank you, Lord for the blessing of serving and thank you Susan for sharing at just the time, my feet were getting tired!