The Wheels On the Bus Go Round and Round Is A Worship Song

16 Make sure you don't take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship— a different kind of "sacrifice"— that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets. Heb 13:16 (MSG)

It's 12:40 Thursday afternoon, and the kids are ready to go to music. Each person grabs a wheelchair's arms and begin pushing one of the children down the ramp on the way to music. When we get there, the kids will all be in a semicircle, and we'll kneel down to get to eye level.

The goal is to get a reaction - any reaction. For these kids are profoundly disabled and confined to their wheelchairs. To get them to react, the music teacher uses simple songs, percussion instruments, bells, and other objects like scarves and cardboard bees on Popsicle sticks.

New Hope has an amazing group of people who have adopted these kids and spend some time two days a week reading to the kids and doing the music time with them. We do it in order to live out Christ's love in our neighborhood. We do it out of a love for Jesus and what He's done for us. I don't know about the rest of our team from New Hope, but Bunny and I come away happy but drained. We give it everything we have for those minutes with the kids, and if we get a reaction, our hearts leap for joy.

So we laugh when we sing about fat turkeys, we ring the bells, tap the tambourines and rap the percussion tubes. And every time we go, we sing "The Wheels On the Bus Go Round and Round."

And Alli rings her bell and grins. And Logan scratches the tambourine's top. And Brendan shouts with joy.

And I thank God.

I'm very aware that people are funny about their worship music. Some prefer the hymns they grew up with. Others want the contemporary sound. The division over musical preference can drive people away from each other, from Christ's church, and from as close a relationship with God as they could have. That's a shame.

If only they could see Alex smile when we ring the bus's bell, and feel the joy we feel from being used to God to tell these kids just how much he loves them.

Then maybe there'd be room on the power point or in the hymnal for just one song more.

Yes, The Wheels On the Bus Go Round and Round Is A Worship song. To me. Because through it, I draw closer to God.

Grace and peace,

David





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Visit with me at my blog:
http://davethepastor.vox.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/

And So, Here I Am...

And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ.
9 My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Gal 3:8-9 (MSG)

Like Paul, I know I am in way over my head. But I also know that God loves me and has chosen me to do this work of telling His story. So I watch and listen.

I was rearranging my office today and picked up a wooden plaque dated 1981. On it rested a hand print of one Adam Wilson, my first born son. It was so small. The writing on the plaque was some of that sentimental stuff about looking back at kids when they grow up.

Uh yeah. Wouldn't want to do that. I'd be one of those saps, huh.

When Adam came into this world, I had no clue what being his daddy would mean. I wasn't just in over my head, I was clueless. All I could do is look at him and wonder what in the world am I supposed to do now?

I thought back to a baby lying in a yellow inflatable "tub" so we could bathe him. To a little boy who followed his daddy around. To a young man who I played basketball with. And today I thought about the man who closed on his first home yesterday and is moving in tonight.

Then I thought about times when we worried over him - when he was sick, when those first days of school came, when we left to come down here and he didn't come with us. There were times of great joy - he was an awesome boy, and there have been times of sadness.

Yet looking at that hand print today made me think of God's grace - His love, and His mercy.

For through it all, even before Adam was born, God knew him, and He knew Bunny and me. We'll never know the extent of how God blessed us with His providential care. A lot of things could have gone wrong. An awful lot of things went right. In that boy, now a man, I got to watch God's work and have a part in it.

"And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ."

Well, sometimes they aren't over your head. I've got a hand print on a plaque to prove it.

Grace and peace,

David