My youngest has been trying out home-spun magic tricks, illusions and sleight of hand. Hiding something in a fist and then swiftly swapping it to the other ‘without me seeing,’ then asking me to guess where the object is. Or choosing a card, placing it back in the pack and finding it again. It’s a phase I remember the other two going through at a similar age. And the glee and delight when they have tricked you is infectious—enough to encourage you to keep going along with the show. This time round though, there is a level of intensity about it, a passion to entertain us. Why? A week or so ago we invited a Christian magician to church to do a show and share his faith. What an evening! We packed out a building, had loads of laughter and a chance to welcome in families who only came occasionally or hadn’t until then.
The idea, of course, was that we would be prayerfully inviting our friends from work, or the school gate. It was a great opportunity to begin conversations about faith with our friends. Knowing how hard this can be, or perhaps more honestly, how embarrassed we can become at the thought of it and how awkward we feel, we talked about it a lot in church services as the date got closer. How might we invite others? What could we say? It’s okay if they say no. What if they start asking questions I can’t answer? What if they think I’m in their face? What if…? Goodness gracious, us grown-ups get in a twist about all this, don’t we!
Kids, on the other hand, can have the confidence of youth. I’m reminded of that as I watch each new little magic trick being worked on and performed. There’s a confidence that it will work, that I will be fooled, that I won’t see the sleight of hand. There’s a confidence that giving it a go will be an adventure. Now of course this isn’t the case every time, or for every kid. But in this case, for our youngest child, it was. She prayed, she picked up invitations from the back of church and she bounded up to her carefully chosen friends at school—and a teacher—to invite them with beaming smile and utter confidence that it was going to be such a great fun evening. Why wouldn’t they want to join us?
And she was right, it was a great evening. Faith was woven into the show seamlessly, one minute a magic trick so silly and clever we were all giggling—youngest to oldest. Then without a pause, a trick illustrating Jesus’ offer of new beginnings. More laughter and wonder, then again a trick that showed us what a life of trust in God was like, what an adventure it could be. I’m glad I didn’t hold her back from inviting her friends so enthusiastically, despite my nagging thoughts, “What will I say to her if they don’t come? How will she react if they say no? She's so naive and vulnerable.”
I wonder when the confidence of youth slips through our fingers, and we find ourselves so caught up in the worrying or embarrassing ‘what ifs’ that we forget the amazing, unexpected, wonderful ‘what ifs,’ the very ones God specializes in! It’s good to be reminded by my youngest that when it’s God we’re inviting people to come to, we don’t ever need to wonder if it will be worth their while. We can be confident, we can think ‘why wouldn’t they want in’ because we know Him.
See more of Cathy Porter’s work at clearlynurturing.wordpress.com
