If you're happy and you know it

The kids listened with remarkable silence as Carly read the story of the birth of Jesus from our Children's Bible. Carly held up the felt board we made out of a large piece of blue felt and a cardboard box and she juggled the pages of the Bible while I placed our felts on the board at the appropriate time.

The star felt moved across the vast blueness and came to rest above a felr stable, littered with golden straw. The three wide-eyed wisemen trotted across the board in pursuit of the felt star, and the children laughed.

We often start our program with only a handful of kids, 30 or 40, and they steadily trickle in as we sing "Adentro, afuera, arriba, abajo," or "Las gallinitas pica."

We love to see the kids come from our families, the kids who we talk to every day, whose pets we know the names of. We see them arrive, dragging their younger siblings behind them, and we beam in their direction.

The story finishes, and as Carly puts the felts away in the market bag, I lead the kids, all up on their feet, in the closing song. There is an enormous and energetic crowd of them now.

We sing "If you're happy and you know it," which in Spanish translates, "If it's true that you're saved____" and then an action, like stomping, or handclapping, to illustrate that you are, indeed saved.

The last verse says, "If it's true that you're saved, say amen!" And then the kids chorus "AH-MEN!" yelling it out, and throwing their arms out wide away from their bodies, as if preparing to give someone a huge hug.

The moment is beautiful, and both Carly and I feel the joy of it.

We are overcome with the chorus of children, belting their lungs out, and throwing their arms open to Jesus.