If anybody asks you who I am,
Who I am, who I am
If anybody asks you who I am,
Tell them I’m a child of God
Not long ago we were talking about baptism in Worship Education. Over the last few months I’ve grown to look forward to these 15-20 minutes each Sunday as the 4 and 5 year olds remind me to be wonderfully curious about God and the world around us.
On this particular Sunday, we were gathered around a small blue green bowl filled with a bit of water. Barely able to control their little fingers from splashing in the inch of water, I told the story of Jesus’ baptism. Together we imagined what it must have been like to see Jesus wade out in the water to his cousin John the Baptist, to see the water sparkling around them, to see the Spirit fly like a dove, to hear God’s voice claiming Jesus as God’s own. We talked about how in our own baptisms that God claims each of us as God’s own. Together we sang a song that they often sing with Ms. Holly and Ms. Keeley on Wednesday nights:
If anybody asks you who I am,
Who I am, who I am
If anybody asks you who I am,
Tell them I’m a child of God
The wonderful thing about this song is that each child is given a turn to sing, “My name is ___ and I’m a child of God!” To hear each child sing one after another in tiny voices that they are a child of God was beautiful. These pre-K children have not yet forgotten who they are —beloved children of God. Thankfully no one has told them otherwise as seems to happen the older we get.
When it got to me, I joined the song but was quickly corrected. “You’re not a child, you’re a grown up!” We finally all agreed that “grown up child of God” would do.
One by one, they were invited to dip their fingers in the water. What had potential to be a splashing contest turned into a holy moment as each child carefully dipped a finger or two in the water as I looked each of them in their big, bright eyes, called them by name and said over and over, “Remember that you are a child of God.”
As I began to move the bowl to the side, a tiny voice whispered from the circle, “Ms. Ashley! You didn’t dip your fingers.” And so I did. And with wet fingers I remembered that I too am a (grown up) child of God.
by Ashley Gill Harrington, Interim Minister for Children and Families