This past Sunday night, my little five year old, Hudson, and I shared in a little male bonding time while driving home from church.  He was quite talkative and eager to share the points of Daddy’s sermon that stood out to him. 

“The Roly-Poly!” He exclaimed.  “That was my favorite part!”

As a communicator, my desire is to reach my audience.  I want them to take away something that impacts their daily life.  I don’t want to just pass along head-knowledge about the Christian life, but true life-knowledge about Jesus Christ. 

I think it was Finney that once said, “There are truths that inform, and truths that perform.”  To be honest, I like to spend most of my time dealing in the latter. 

Well, that said, I wasn’t feeling like a very effective communicator this past Sunday night.  I had spoken passionately about the Gospel, about the reality of the indwelling Christ, about the extraordinary fact that He condescends to enter the human body and call it His very home, and, I’m saddened to admit this, but I didn’t talk about “Roly-Polie’s” at all. 

“Roly Polie’s?” I asked, hoping to hear some sort of clarification.

“Yeah!” He confirmed, “That was my favorite part!”

I felt obliged, at this juncture, to bring some clarification of my own.  I walked through the content of my message with my little boy and once again discussed the amazing fact that God Almighty seeks to make our little smelly stables His very birthplace. 

He nodded along in agreement.  But I still felt a little chagrined that his “favorite part” wasn’t even a part of the message. 

A few minutes later, we began a discussion on how God can turn our smelly stables into his very house – a place fit for a King.  And just like the Holy of Holies, he plates us with refined gold and fragrances us with frankincense and myrrh.  Okay, I didn’t say it in such flowery language, but that was the gist of it. 

It was at this point that Hudson yelled out, “Yeah, the Roly of Polies!” 

I have no idea what Hudson’s mental picture is of the Holy of Holies now that he has associated it with a little Pill Bug, but I can say that he will be more likely than most to enter it with a spirit of childlikeness.