By Staff
Leada DeVaney, Hartselle Enquirer
It was a packed house during each of the four services at North Park Baptist Church in Birmingham on Sunday. My family was attending church there, enjoying the sermon and music, especially since the choir includes my mother.
But one member of my family wasn't sitting with us. My nephew, Collier, age 3, was tucked away in the nursery. His mother and father thought this was the safest move, and didn't think he could make it through an entire sermon.
"He looked really good when we left the house this morning," my brother, Collier's father, said. "By the time we got to church he had marker on his face and it was pretty much down hill from there."
We all enjoyed the church service and bragged on Collier's older brother, Isaac, who managed to sit through the entire sermon with just a few wiggles.
At the end of the service, Collier's parents went to retrieve him and relieve the obviously brave nursery workers.
"What did you do in Sunday School?" Collier was asked.
"Read a book," he replied, as he looked around the car for remnants of chocolate bunnies.
"What was the book about?" my brother asked him.
"God. It was the God book," Collier said.
"He always says that," my brother told us later. "You ask him what he did in Sunday School and he will tell you he read the God book. Sometimes, he will tell you he read the Jesus book."
We all smiled. Collier's description seemed to fit the day.
Several hours and lots of food later, Collier ambled up to the dinner table just as we were finishing our meal.
His pale yellow sweater and blue and yellow plaid pants were covered in dirt or chocolate or some combination of the two. He had Silly String in his hair and his hands were sticky from the soap mixture he was using to blow bubbles. His face was a rainbow of colors – green from Sweet Tarts, red from M&Ms, brown from chocolate bunnies and orange from who knows what.
He had a grin on his face and if a 3-year-old can laugh maniacally, he was.
"Uh oh," my brother said. "You're about to see another side of him. He's had too much sugar."
Collier and Isaac proceeded to find large cardboard tubes and act out sword battles with them. The Easter outfits were being battered beyond repair.
But somewhere, I couldn't help but think of the verse in the Bible about Jesus and little children, when he invited the children unto him and said "the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
I don't know if Collier has heard this verse, but I'm sure one day he will. After all, it's in the God book, and that's pretty big with him.