Messy Hands, Big Bubbles, and Plenty of Grace

Caroline Johnson
Aug 12
2 min read

“Lift up your bubbles!”

“We lift them up to the Lord!”

There was plenty to lift up at our Summer Messtival at St. Andrew’s On-the-Sound! More than 38 children, youth, and adults came together for a morning when getting messy wasn’t just allowed, it was encouraged.

Outside, kids raced down the slip n’ slide and experimented with humongous bubbles floating across the lawn. Inside, there were containers filled with goop and slime just waiting for curious hands. Kids made tie-dye bags, tackled crafts, created their own slime, and discovered plenty of other ways to make a wonderfully colorful mess.

We are especially thankful for all the adults who gave their time, energy, and creativity to make the morning possible. They prepared activities, gathered supplies, welcomed families, helped at stations, encouraged our young people, and, perhaps most impressively, helped clean everything up when the fun was over! This event simply would not have happened without them.

Amid all the laughter and mess was a simple message for our young people: life can be messy, too.

We will not always have everything figured out. Things will not always turn out exactly as we planned. Sometimes we make mistakes, and sometimes life gets a lot messier than we expected. But through it all, God’s grace and kindness are always with us.

Maybe that is one of the gifts of an event like Messtival. Faith does not require us to have everything neat and tidy. We can explore, wonder, laugh, make mistakes, get our hands dirty, and trust that God is right there with us.

Thank you to everyone who came, volunteered, donated, planned, prepared, and helped make Summer Messtival such a special morning.

Messy hands. Big bubbles. Full hearts. Plenty of grace.

Come and See!