Sam`s Bridge

by Lisa LaLonde

Danielle, age 8, was having a rebellious moment in Rhythms. She was not going to do any of this. She was not going to hug, or link arms, or clap or stomp or sing. And if she did get tricked into doing it, she certainly wasn’t going to enjoy it. Her face was a rumbling dark cloud. The Rhythms leader even put her at the front of the Glory Train and gave her the train whistle to blow. Okay, that was cool, but she didn’t let on that she thought so. When we all paired up to make a tunnel with our bridged hands, you could see the “Oh, no I won’t!” in her eyes. There were spiritual exhorter giants all around her. But none of them were having any effect on her. But then there was Sam.

Sam was the new little boy with giant blue eyes. Sam had never been to CFO before, and this was a great adventure for him. Sam quietly came up to Danielle, and it seemed he did not even see the fire in her eyes. With a confidence that made us all catch our breath, he smiled at Danielle and put his hands up in the air to meet hers where they should have been. Then he said, “Come on, Danielle!” with a small, beautiful voice that made the rest of us want to obey as well. Danielle looked startled. She hadn’t counted on this. She screwed up her face and thought. It seemed to take forever for the thought to move into action, but like all children, she couldn’t resist the real thing. Tangible love with no strings, reaching out to her to participate in joy. Suddenly, her hands shot up and met his and together they made a bridge.

As happens when you are caught up in something bigger than yourself, Danielle and Sam were suddenly swept up in the moving bridge, each of us taking our partner inside the canopy of hands and following the bent backs before us. Danielle never let go of the hands that had reached out to her. Two by two, the partner groups came barreling down the tunnel, ready to take their place as the bridge at the end. Suddenly the grown ups found themselves on their knees in order to pass through the bridge Danielle and Sam had built and stubbornly clung to. Every adult saint gasped and instantly obeyed and crawled through the tiny bridge. Danielle and Sam resolutely held on while the giants came through, camels through the eye of a needle indeed! Finally, the last giants were through, and the little miracle bridge finally collapsed into an armful of bodies, laughter, and something resembling joy in a little girl (although she would never admit it to anyone...)

Once again a child had done what the spiritual giants could not. David and Goliath? Sometimes God sends the child, not as the last resort, but as his first and best frontal strategic plan. When I’m feeling like Danielle, I’ll look for a Sam. And when I know I’m a small child sent in for a big task, I’ll build a bridge like Sam did.

© 2006 Cincogatos Productions
Published in Wings of Prayer, the quarterly newsletter of Camps Farthest Out’s United Prayer Tower 2006