Closer and closer...

Here it is, August 7, and my due date is exactly one month away!! I feel like I'm stuck a few months back and time is just moving on without me. Am I prepared for baby number three? I have his room painted, the crib is up, the changing table still needs work, and I have to find a few screws for the swing, but for the most part, I have most of the necessities. But I really don't think my mind is ready for this yet.... either way, he'll be here sometimes in the next few weeks!! (And for the record, our baby still has no name :( Blame my husband).

Anyway, I've been keeping busy... we have vacation bible school starting tomorrow at my church and it is going to be great!! If I get motivated enough to leave the house today, I want to go take some pictures of all of the decorations prior to the kids coming in for kickoff tomorrow. I promise I will post them if I indeed get by there to take some :) We've been spending a lot of time working on getting everything just right, but in the end, it's not about all of the decorations, crafts, snacks, nametags, pre-registration websites or whatever else we're doing to make things run smoothly. It's about the children, each and every one that comes through our doors over the next few days and how we've been charged with the responsibility to make sure they fully understand who Jesus is, and why it is so very important that they begin to seek & know Him even at the earliest of ages. We're the gardeners for the next few days, planting seeds in the hearts of these kids, trimming away misconceptions in those who have a vague but misguided knowledge of Christ, revealing the truth of who the Vine is. I think sometimes we look at things like VBS as a super fun, "let's get as many kids as we can in here so we can brag to our friends" kind of event. But that is just plain wrong! Yes, we want a lot of kids to come and have fun as we watch the cool "concert" videos from GoFish. But if that's all we're after, we're missing the mark. This is an opportunity for us to drastically change the life of maybe just one kid, but if that one child hears for the very first time who Jesus is and makes a decision that he/she loves God so much that they want Jesus to be Lord of their life in every way..... wow... maybe it's my pregnancy hormones, but I have tears in my eyes at just the thought that we can make such an impact. 

There are so many ministries in the church that are reaching out to those who are already in the church, and while I could never discount the importance of any of these, I have to say that an event like vacation bible school is one that really allows us to open our doors to the "least of these", those who are still so impressionable. The children really are our future, and if we "raise them up in the way they should go", think of all of the great men and women of God our grandchildren will have the privilege of learning from.