by Lucky Sahualla
A few nights ago, our younger daughter, now four years old, emerged from her bedroom after dressing herself for bed wearing her favorite nightgown. Over the nightgown she wore a colorful poncho given to her by one of her god-families. This combination was especially unexpected as it was early August in Houston.
Before I could even ask her why she was wearing this outfit to bed, she held out her arms palms up and said, “This is how the pastor dresses.” After I stopped chuckling I sent her to show her mother but followed along because I wanted to see and hear it again. Her older sister came along as well, and the whole family got a nice big laugh and group hug out of the moment.
As I pondered what might have brought on this impromptu fashion show of improvised clerical garb, I reflected on both the surprise of seeing her decked out in an “alb” and “chasuble” and the fact that she chose to model the pastoral attire associated with the Eucharist.
As is the practice at Christ the King, she has been joining us at the communion rail ever since she was a baby and has been communing on bread and wine ever since she was old enough to consume solids. In fact, I am pretty certain I pushed the line of propriety (probably both in church and society) when before they could eat solids I would offer my tiny infant children my finger to suckle after dipping it in the wine residue left in my own communion glass.
Of my two children, the younger has always been the one a bit too active and noisy to remain in the nave for the entire worship service. Thus for her, worship has consisted primarily of communion. Even then she is so fidgety and chatter-y, hanging on the rail and dancing through the chancel, that one is tempted to wonder if she is really “there” at all. But, she never fails to instruct us to come get her from the nursery in time for communion, so we never fail to retrieve her.
Yet, somehow, and this is a true miracle of childhood, amidst and among all the jiggling and wriggling and squirming and prancing and nibbling she has been present enough to notice not only how the presiding minister is dressed but also how the congregation is addressed and invited into communion with Christ. In her childlike and trusting manner she faithfully joins him there. And her parents gain a new appreciation for the words “suffer the little children to come unto me.