The little man’s eyes were wide with awe as he looked up in amazement as I marked a cross on his forehead, blessing him with, “May the Lord bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you.”

Immediately he whispered again, “Woooooow!” … Chills, my friends; I got chills.

At our church, the congregation takes communion at a half-moon-shaped altar rail at the front of the church. As I make my way around the inside of the semicircle, doling out the bread to the kneeling worshippers, I bless with a cross on the foreheads of those who don’t take communion.

This young man, whom I baptized a couple years ago as an infant, was in the arms of his grandpa, watching the holy spectacle of what communion looks like in our church.

And whatever he was seeing, he felt it … viscerally. 

Because before I even made it to him and his grandpa, I could already hear him uttering over and over again: “Wow! …. Woooow! … Wooooooow!”

Eventually, when I arrived in front of him and his grandpa who held out his hand to accept his wafer, he whispered again to no one in particular: “Wooow!”

“May I bless him?” I asked. “Of course,” his grandpa said.

So I reached down to seal him with a cross on his forehead and utter my blessing.

And in that moment, the air around us felt like electricity was running through it; our heart rates quickened; and there was a rush of the Holy Spirit that was imperceptible except for the mystic energy that crackled from it.

Mesmerized, the little man stared directly into my face and whispered in an urgent but almost inaudible level: “Wooooooowwwww!”

Indeed my little man, indeed!

I’m no record holder, but I’ve presided over enough communion now to admit that sometimes it can feel, if not routine, maybe … a bit more “regular” than it should. Before you lose your marbles on me, let me add that presiding over communion is never boring, but you know what it is to be human and experience something hundreds of times. Even the best of us become a little jaded.

But not on this Sunday. … On this Sunday, there was one little man whom I’m pretty sure felt the actual presence of Jesus Christ in that communion moment, which is exactly what the Lutheran doctrine teaches us. Jesus IS present during communion!

And when he experienced that Jesus moment, this little boy reminded this pastor that there is nothing remotely routine about offering the covenants promised to us in the eucharist.

My friends, communion is special. Don’t forget that. Amen.

Devlyn Brooks is the CEO of Churches United in Moorhead, Minn., and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.