..."What was that lady doing with her hair wet standing up there next to God?"
By "God" the little girl meant the pastor standing by the young lady in the baptistry.
We both laughed and talked a minute about how sweet that was and how wonderful it is to see our young children begin to grow and grasp the fundamental issues of the Christian life. A moment like that obviously grants a great teaching moment to explain who the pastor is, who God is, what baptism is, etc. I did make sure that she had seized the moment to tell her daughter that the man up there wasn't God, but the pastor. And, of course, she had.
But when I went home and thought about it, it gave me one of those John Wesley moments of trembling before God ("with knees-knocking," I think Wesley said). What an awesome thing it is to stand before the people of God and say "God" in ways they can understand.
The minister is not God...despite some minister's apparent confusion on the matter. But he does speak the Word of the living God. He does proclaim, "Thus saith the Lord."
It was a precious and sweet mistake for a young child to make...and it was a somewhat terrifying reminder to this pastor of Who we represent and reflect before the church and the watching world.
Once again, out of the mouths of babes...