Sweet Story about a Sweet Girl

At our church, the pastor hands out an empty box each week at children's time to one lucky child in attendance. That child gets to take the box home, put whatever he or she wants to in the box, and return it to church the next week. There the pastor will, on the fly, make up a mini-sermon for the children, relating the object in the box to an important lesson about God. It's quite an exciting thrill to be the one chosen to take the box home, and Pastor Paul does his best to be fair and rotate among children who haven't had a turn in awhile.

Yesterday, Megan got chosen to take home the box. When she did, another little girl started pouting and was starting to cry. Now, I'm not sure exactly what happened next, because I wasn't right up there, but somehow, Megan decided to give the box to the other little girl (and therefore forfeit her own turn). I'd love to tell you this was entirely Megan's very own selfless idea, but I think she might have had a little encouragement from Bill, or even the pastor. Even so, what happened after was still really sweet. Pastor Paul was touched at Megan's nice gesture and made a point of telling the other boys and girls, and the congregation, what a nice thing Megan had done for this other little girl, "because she cared about her feelings." He talked about how God wants us to do that for people. The congregation just ate this up and started clapping for little Megan.

Megan, overwhelmed and probably a little embarrassed by the attention, and more than a little sad that she didn't get to take the box after all, tried to make it back to her seat, but the tears started to fall when she was about halfway down the aisle. Poor thing...buried her head in my lap and cried because she had given up her turn. I told her what a nice thing that was to do for that little girl, and that everyone had been clapping FOR HER, but this was small consolation.

At the start of Pastor Paul's sermon to the congregation, he talked about how sometimes God makes things work out in amazing ways, and went on to say that his planned sermon for the day was about humility, and giving up one's place of honor for those less fortunate, for a greater reward in Heaven. Pastor Paul then mentioned how beautifully Megan's example of giving up the box to the other little girl illustrated this very point.

After church got out, a young girl of about 11 or 12 whom I had never met before came up to us and asked, "Is this the girl who gave up the box?" When I told her it was, she gave Megan an origami crane she had made for her. It is amazing what the small acts of small children will inspire in others. The mom of the girl to whom Megan gave the box also came up to us after church and thanked Megan for her kindness, and also offered to let Megan also add something to the box next week, along with her daughter. I thought that was a nice gesture. Pastor Paul also said something to me after church about what a sweet girl Megan is.

Bill and I couldn't help but joke later about how Megan's act had sort of elevated her to cult status. It was kind of humorous, especially given the shady details about whose idea it really was for her to give up the box. (Bill was up there, but it happened so fast, he says he isn't really sure how things transpired.) Bill and I also later debated the merits of "giving in" to the behavior of the other little girl. Is it really a good idea to reward crying and pouting when one doesn't get one's way? But all that aside, and regardless of the origin for the idea, the fact remains that Megan did give up her turn for someone else. A turn that she wanted really badly, and for which she had waited a long time. Not all kids would have shown such grace in that situation. I was pretty proud of her. I guess I'll join her cult :)