Cheep! Cheep!

My honorary nephew, Jesse, is three years of sweetness, delight, goose eggs, and endless energy. Willing to leap off of tall buildings (furniture) and swing on spider webs (blankets) into his lair (a pile of pillows). He rarely slows down and is always running, or jumping, or climbing something. For all of these reasons, the house rule is that he has to eat all food at the dining room table. His mom is not about to have food traipsing all around her house as homeboy saves the day from the bad guys but leaves a smear of peanut butter in his wake.

But we all know that whatever food Mom or Dad has is inherently more exciting or intriguing than anything kids could ever have on their own. So Jesse’s Mom instituted “Cheep! Cheep!” feeding – where she will baby bird style feed her littles bite-sized portions directly into their wide opens maws whenever they are away from the table to minimize crumbs and mess. She started saying “Cheep! Cheep!” first to call the little birds to her for a sweet treat, but now the kids say it as a short hand to ask for food as well.

Last Sunday I got to see a beautiful picture of this request in action – I sat next to Jesse and fam as Aunt Kelly and watched Jesse’s small eyes fill with delight as we each collected our communion cups and bread. To Jesse – everyone around him was partaking in a secret snack time. He took matters into his own tiny hands. He stood up, leaned into his dad’s lap, and whispered, “Cheep! Cheep!” His dad said, “Not this time, buddy,” and scooped him up delightedly before taking communion with the rest of the congregation.

I thought – My what a beautiful picture of theology beyond what Jesse can possibly comprehend. We left the service and I told Jesse’s parents, “Welp, this is gonna be a blog post!”

We are all in some ways Jesse – we have access to God the Father in a way only a beloved child does. We lean in, we ask for what we want. God scoops us up in his arms and answers us either yes, or better. If he withholds something, it is because he has something better for us. Knowing Jesse’s dad, it would be his absolute delight to give Jesse his bread and juice representative of so much more, but it isn’t time yet – so he waits.

But God the Father does give us precisely what communion is representative of – a believer’s ongoing Union with Christ — through Jesus in a very “Cheep! Cheep!” way. We don’t earn this meal, just as we don’t earn our salvation. We don’t even have to sit at the table for it. God feeds us; he gives us living water; he nourishes our souls. He protects us like a mother hen under the shadow of his wing.

We can pray and repeat along with the followers of Christ who have met the bread of life in John 6:34, “Sir, give us this bread always.” And when we don’t have the words, I think a heartfelt, “Cheep! Cheep!” to our Father can mean just as much.