Faith of a Child

Emma’s maiden name was Brady. I met her several months ago at church. She and I hit it off immediately. Every time I saw her after our first meeting I would refer to her as my cousin. We had several talks about the Brady clan.  That first Sunday I met her she asked me if I had any grandchildren. Emma kept a list of children in our church and also added the names of the grandchildren of members of the church so that she could pray for all of them. I gave her the names and ages of our three grands.

Emma had served many years working with preschool children. She had a special gift with that group, and children simply loved her. They were drawn to her. Children who were hesitant to leave their parents immediately ran to Emma and were excited to stay with her. Someone told me that Emma was in her early to mid 80’s. I was very surprised because she did not look that old to me. I thought she was closer to the early 70’s, young, like me.

Something really bad happened to Emma last week. She and her husband were at a McDonalds. As Emma was walking over to get something she fell backwards and hit her head on the floor. She was immediately knocked out. The EMT’s came, but they could not revive her. Emma had gone into a coma, and she never regained consciousness. She was put on life support. I think it was the next day the life support was removed and Emma died. The doctors said nothing could be done; she was brain dead. Obviously, Emma’s death shocked everyone. The first thoughts were, how would this tragedy affect the children.

This past Sunday morning one of the little girls, 5 or 6 years old, bounced into the classroom so excited. With a big smile on her face she announced, “Hey, everybody, guess what! Miss Emma has gone to be with Jesus!” What a testimony! Miss Emma had to be smiling from ear to ear. For those little children everything was good because Miss Emma had gone to be with the One she had taught them to love. They believed that Miss Emma was in the best place she could be, and they were happy for her.

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:2-3

The faith of a little child is precious. Oh that we could all be like them!