First Communion

I remember the first time I took communion. I was at an Evangelical Free Church winter retreat at Twin Lakes Bible Camp. I was in Junior High. I was supposed to have gone to camp a week or so before with my church (it was our home camp), but the weather was bad and camp was canceled. So I ended up going with the Free Church where I went to youth group. On Sunday morning they had communion, and I felt ready to participate. I'm not sure why I did it then and not before, but I guess I was ready to make the decision to do it.

Anders took communion today at church for the first time. It was a little unplanned (mainly because I was forgetting it was happening today). He had commented to Beth a few weeks ago that he would like to partake of communion sometime. She talked with him about it--he knew what it meant and why we did it--and asked if he had accepted Jesus' forgiveness and decided to follow Him--he said he had prayed that at some point. He knows Jesus is God's Son who came to earth to show us God's way of love and died on the cross so that our sins might be forgiven and we might live with God. He gets that. At least as best as a five-year old can--which I think is as good as any of us can.

So when it was time today, he asked if he could do it. We briefly talked about what the bread and the juice meant. Our church is fairly big, so they get the pre-wafers and we dip them in a chalice with the juice (his assessment afterward was that it was "crunchy."

In some churches the first communion is a big deal. In some, it's not noticed at all. It all kind of just happened (I almost hesitated doing it because Beth was in a Sunday School room prepping for the lesson, so she wasn't there with us). But we've talked about it, and he gets it, and we pray for him and his spiritual journey ahead. Sometimes things with faith just happen. I'm not sure Anders has a specific day when any of us can say he was "saved." He just has grown up hearing about Jesus and His love for us. He's always known he answers and the stories. He gets it. And, no, he's not perfect--he's got a lot of growth ahead of him. But so do I. Salvation isn't an instant transformation but a daily decision to be renewed in Christ. It's a blessing to see that he's making those decisions already.