Messy Hearts

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

I adore sparkly things and I abhor wasting any thing so it came as no surprise to me that glitter glue would be used by God to teach me a valuable lesson this past holiday season.

I attended a birthday party for Jesus last month. A giant birthday card was set up and each person could take a cutout heart and decorate it with stickers, sequins, felt-tip pens and glitter glue in glorious colors! I set about gluing sequins, scoping out the gold glitter glue, and writing my name on my heart for the card. My art zone was infringed upon by a girl of about eight or nine years old. She too was after the various glitter glues. I cringed as she grabbed each tube and squeezed half the glue out onto the little heart and it almost physically hurt when she asked me for help securing the various colors. My eyeballs were twitching after three colors. "What a waste of glitter glue," I mumbled. I confess, I picked up my heart and walked away.

It wasn't long before she was behind me in the line to have our hearts put on the birthday card for Jesus. Her soggy little heart lay across her palms and threatened to tear as she presented it to be hung. She was careful to make sure they knew just where to hang it when it dried and skipped off to play pin the tail on the donkey, oblivious to my pain.

I scurried off to tune my guitar and count books that were to be passed out as party favors. While doing so, the Spirit nudged me and reminded me that the kingdom of heaven belongs to children such as this and asked why glitter glue was so important to me when the little girl was to him. She had answered his invite to his party and he loves her little messy heart.

What a wonderful gift to hear all the children of God at the party sing "Yes, Jesus Loves Me!" after having my heart cleaned up. What fun for me to join in and belt out the song with a new conviction of how true it really is. Messy hearts and all.

"The Lord their God will save them on that day as the flock of his people. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown." ~Zechariah