Communion with Gabe (and a giveaway)

Welcome to my (gasp) 300th blog post! For those of you who don't know me in real life, this may be hard to believe. Just ask those who do...I always have something to say, and I rarely refrain from saying it. These people probably aren't surprised at all...

I wasn't sure what to include in this post. I wanted it to be funny, but I also wanted to emphasize those things that make me, well, me. A scrapbooking-ICU nurse-Mommy-wife-sister-friend-blogger-Christian woman. A pretty tall order, I thought.

Then we went to church this past Sunday. We are Methodist, and in the Methodist church, the first Sunday of each month is Holy Communion. Usually we pass the bread around on plates, Pastor Gary blesses the bread, we eat it; ditto for the "wine".

Gabe has only been attending official church since September, after he turned four and proved to the world at large that he had the ability to sit still and remain silent for more than two minutes at a time. That being said, he has only taken communion four times, and each time has been very stressful for me. I tried to explain the meaning of taking communion, but he really wasn't "getting it".

Until now.

Picture this: Gabe, myself, Isabel and Joe are sitting quietly on the pew, towards the front of the church (Elijah is with Papaw a few seats back). The ushers pass the bread plate down our pew, and I take Gabe's bread for him (he tends to be too choosey about his particular piece). Gabe waits for a millisecond before eating the bread (i.e. before Pastor Gary says the "words"). He chews and smiles up at me, knowing he was supposed to wait. I save a piece of my bread for him to eat with the blessing. In the meantime, Gabe is picking at his teeth with his finger. I whisper, "What are you doing?" in a hushed voice, hoping not to attract any unwanted attention.

He answers, in a not-so-hushed-voice, "I'm trying to get this...Jesus is stuck in my teeth!" Just then, he plucks the clump of "Jesus" out of his teeth and swallows it. All around us you hear muffled giggling and snickering.

On to the wine. Or juice; whatever. The purplish fluid representing the blood of Christ. Joe is holding onto Gabe's little thimbleful of juice, so he doesn't drink it before the appointed time. Gabe spies his cup, and loudly whispers "Hey, where's my blood-juice, Dad? I need it!". Joe gives him the cup, hoping to quiet him, at which point Gabe leans over to me and says, "Mom, Jesus isn't in my heart, he's in my stomach!"

Tell me this kid doesn't know the meaning of communion...

I could hardly contain my laughter, and that hysterical moment carried me through the rest of my day. (Thank goodness, 'cause my shift at work totally sucked!)

Here's the sweet thing, saying his bedtime prayer, which has progressed from Dear-Jesus-I-lub-you-amen, to God-is-great-God-is-good-and-we-dank-him-for-our-food-amen.

I love it!

And now for the fun scrapbooking part...

To include y'all in my Post-300-celebration, I am having a giveaway. Now, it's not quite a Sunshine and Lemonade giveaway, but it's the best I've got.

There are three prizes. Leave a comment, and you will be entered in for a chance of one of the three. Become a follower of mine and leave me another comment for another entry (I like being followed, people, c'mon).

I only have a photo of one prize, and here it is:

A set of eight handmade-by-me all-occasion cards (birthday, thank you, congratulations and friend). Made with paper by Basic Grey, and a whole lotta love from me.

Prize two is a handmade scrapbook, in which you can send me your photos and I will scrap them and send you the finished book. It's an 8x8 album, and will be done with this same patterned paper as the cards.

Prize three is my husband.

Just kidding. Although if times get tight, I may rent out his handy-man abilities for some extra cash...

Seriously, the third prize is a set of Valentine notecards, also handmade by moi (and maybe Becky, if she decides to help...hint, hint).

You have until Wednesday at 3pm eastern time to enter, at which point I will attempt the Random Integer thingy to pick three winners. Check back on Thursday to see who won what...

Oh, and thanks for sticking it out with me for 300 posts. Who knew I'd have it in me?

(And that is what she said!)