The Holy Spirit and Children

I make no claims to be a theologian, but I do enjoy contemplating the cornerstones of my faith and asking questions based on my observations of people. There is a little girl (around age 4) at our church who seems to have something special in her heart when it comes to praising God. As soon as the worship music begins, she is up from her pew, clapping her hands and raising them toward God with closed eyes and a remarkably sincere expression. When the people around her are not activitely participating, she looks at them, points at their hands, and then claps her own as if to say, "Praise God with me!" Once when I was moved to tears as I prayed, this child asked me, "Why are you crying?" to which her grandmother replied, "She's just loving Jesus." The child then asked me, "You're loving Jesus?" with the most tender concern, just to make sure that was true. Just today, this little one stood and began to clap, soon realizing that her doll was impeding her movements. She discarded the doll on the pew and went on praising. In a world where many children are segregated by age everywhere they go, church or otherwise, I am moved by this 4-year-old's active participation in the multigenerational body of Christ.

Often I ask myself, is this simply imitation? Is this child mimicing her grandmother's heartfelt expressions of praise? Can the Holy Spirit come to the hearts of children and inspire them in ways we (and they) cannot comprehend? I believe it to be so, but whatever the case may be, this child is an inspiration to me each and every Sunday. She, in her innocence, represents the heart of worship for me!