I attend a small village church in rural Pennsylvania. On any given Sunday, we may have six or seven faithful little ones who come with their parents for the entire church service.

Pastor has a white bag which gets passed from child to child, making sure they get equal turns to put something in for him to talk about. Each Sunday, Pastor calls all the little children up to him and he opens the bag to find a "surprise" on which he bases his children's sermon.

Last week, the bag went home with a little guy who spends many hours a week on church related activities. His parents and older brother are very active and so, in turn, is he. When Pastor opened the bag, there was a copy of Handel's Messiah which was very appropriate for Easter Sunday. (His parents and brother sing in the choir.)

Pastor and the children had a lively discussion going on about the joy and happiness that music brings to the service. As he closed the little talk, Pastor said, " Yes, music is a wonderful part of our service. What would church be like if there was none?"

Without skipping a beat, the little boy who had brought the music called out, "About a half an hour!"

Nobody could argue that.

Sherry E. Heard, (C)  2005
Used With Permission