Yes, Sometimes It Takes a Village (Also Known as the Body of Christ)

It was the first night of our church’s VBS (Vacation Bible School).

The VBS that is in the evening, and stretches past my children’s bedtime, making each hot summer day a really long one.

My husband, of course, was assigned to overnight trips each day that week  Lots of hopes opportunity for grace here.

The very cool thing is, our church throws in a meal. Every day of VBS. We feed the workers, the kids, the community, anyone who attends.

Feed the hungry.

What’s that you say? Someone is feeding my children? All week long. Oh, we’re there. We are soooooo there. So on Monday evening, we came, we ate, we fellowshipped. And then Boy Two burned his leg on a motorcycle in the parking lot. He screams, and it echoes through the dining area. You know how burns are.

I hauled him into the church kitchen, because that is where you take children who have an injury – where the food is being prepared. One person grabbed a towel, and stuffed ice in it. Another person grabbed the first aid kid, and a nurse who attends our church fetched some burn cream.

Love.

Two girls ran over, their mobile phones readied with a game of Pac Man. Someone showed up with a popsicle. Three of us restrained my son while we applied cream to his knee and kept him from rubbing it off. Another mom handed him a sweet tart-looking chewable pill of children’s acetaminophen, which he popped in his mouth without hesitation (I’ve long been opposed to medicine that looks like candy. Not so much anymore).

Joy.

A family swooped up my toddler, who was trying to escape to the great outdoors, sat him down, and fed him a second supper.

Helping hands. Swift feet. The hands and feet of Jesus.

Someone else made sure my 7 year old got with his group to start out the night.

My neighbor, with whom we attend church, offered to take my injured child home (so I could stay and work), or stay and take my seven-year old home so he could finish out his first night.

Peace. Patience. Kindness.

Turns out, all the attention and distractions and sugar-loading did it. He was saved from himself by a handful of people who cared for a child and helped out a mom. I was able to stay at VBS and work. He and his brothers had a great night.

If one part rejoices, every part rejoices with it.

This whole injury ordeal lasted not 20 minutes, but it was 20 minutes of significance for a mom who needed the quick-thinking hands of others, needed someone to catch her two-year old, and help her absorb the screams and the wails and the cries.

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.

We had a great, albeit tiring, week. Every single evening with our church family, someone helped me in some way with my kids.

Knowing this child, it’s likely he’ll have learned nothing from his painful experience, and burn himself on a motorcycle again tomorrow.

If so, the village has me covered.

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 12, Galatians 5, Matthew 25

stock.xchng photos by jynmeyer and gokoroko