Praise you in the heavens, joining with the angels- Everything that has breath

A few weeks ago in class my bible lesson on Jesus growing up in Joseph’s footsteps was nearing an end. The strangest thing about this lesson was the ending. We haven’t even talked about the crucifixion, but this was the first time the curriculum told me to tell the kids that they need to invite Jesus into their hearts in order to really follow him. I guess it follows through with the ‘following in his footsteps’ theme, I could stretch, but that connection was not so seemingly clear to my students. I’d mentioned the crucifixion in passing before and that we need to follow Christ, but this time they curriculum told me exactly what to say. I was instructed to let them know that I wanted to help them ask Jesus into their hearts and that they could come and talk to me anytime about it. This is the honest truth, and I would love to talk to the kids about this fact anytime, but it took me a bit by surprised. Truth be told, I hadn’t had the opportunity to read this lesson ahead of time, but was not expecting this from the topic I knew we were discussing. Not long after this lesson the kids were at their Library class and I was sitting in my classroom preparing for the next lesson. All of a sudden, the new girl in class came in and came running over to me excited and whispered in my ear as if there were a classroom full of kids listening. She said “Miss Jean, I want to have Jesus come and live in my heart”. I was so surprised. I barely knew this girl. I quickly said to her “That is awesome A, and you know what? I would LOVE to talk to you about this after lunch. But right now, the library teacher is probably wondering where you ran off to!” She had escaped to come and tell me this! :D I was overwhelmed as I sent her back to Library. I was excited but scared at the same time. I can’t fully explain the feeling, but I knew that no matter what happened, God had a plan, and that comforted me.
On the way to lunch some of the other students in my class asked me if any one had come and asked for Jesus to live in their hearts. I told them the truth, that someone had, but told them that it was up to that person to share. Sure thing, right after lunch she came barging into my room and said again “Miss Jean I want to have Jesus in my heart!”
I went and sat with her in the 1 ½ feet tall chairs and talked about what that really meant. She seemed to understand as we talked about it, I asked her some questions to find out more about her faith background. Just because I teach in a Christian school does not mean that these kids come from Christian families. Lots of people send them here because they like the environment and the good morals. All I had known about this girl who showed up at Heritage only days before is how incredibly insistent her father was that she be at Heritage- enough to go to board to expand my class size. We sat there and prayed together, I led her in accepting Jesus into her heart! The thing that I will always remember about this time with her was what she said to me shortly after the prayer. When we finished praying I looked up at her and said, “You know what is happening in Heaven right now?” A replied with a big cuddly grin “What?” I responded in excitement “The angels are singing! They are so excited that you have Jesus in your heart!” She questioned by saying “I can’t hear them.” She was befuddled. We proceeded to talk about how you can’t always hear the angels singing, but that right now they were having a party for her, welcoming her into the Kingdom of Heaven! After we talked some more about what her life has to mean now, and how she is changed and always has someone to turn to, she skipped on out to the remaining 3 minutes of recess. She had never been so happy to miss a recess before in her life.