Are You Ready for This?
This is God.Evan has some Max Lucado movies he's obssessed with, (I've mentioned Flo the Fly,) and in the movies the characters talk to God. He was drawing the different characters- Hermie, Wormie, Flo, and then he drew something that looked like a grey caterpillar, (Hermie's a caterpillar,) and so I thought maybe he was confused and thought God was some all-powerful caterpillar we pray to every night. I complimented the drawing and then turned to Shaun and asked, "should I even try to explain this..." No, of course not, was his answer.
But as we were discussing this, Evan, (overhearing us,) drew a new picture of God (this one on the left,) as if to say, "I'm not stupid- I'm just trying to express my concept of God artistically, MOM. Come on, think outside the box a little, would ya?"
What fascinates me the most is that there seems to be some sort of halo- like in all the classics. Go figure.
I mentioned reading the Bible to Evan in my last post, but I should've gone into more detail...
Out of the hundreds of "My First Bible"s at the bookstore, (which was completely overwhelming,) I somehow ended up with a great alternative to the one-lesson-per-page Bibles made in masses. The ones with characters that look the same in every book- you've seen them- with the angular faces, usually standing next to a jagged fire on a jagged burning bush, or some other Biblically-burning object, making them both sharp and dull at once. The kind that usually fits several chapters of Scripture onto one page, which is somehow both too much information and too little information for the mind of a three year old- well not this book I stumbled upon. David Helm actually geared the translation towards a toddler, rather than the adult cliff notes of old. And Gail Schoonmaker, makes some mean schoon in her illustrations, that are anything but dull or jagged.
Now that I've done an advertisement for them, let me complete it with the product test results-
Evan was most interested in the illustrations and answered all of the questions I asked. One of them was:What would you have done if you were Adam or Eve- would you have listened to the snake's words, or God's words?
And as I'm asking him this, I'm telling myself- okay, so there's no right answer really. No need to panic. If he says God, well then that's very commendable- if he says the snake, well then that's just truthful...
His answer? The snake.
So of course I begin telling him that he was right, he would've probably chosen the same thing Adam and Eve did, which is why we all needed Jesus to make things right. By the time we finished covering the flood, I wondered if maybe this was a little much in one night. But he didn't seem confused or overwhelmed. His conversation was both enthusiastic and reverent with all we discussed, and he seemed throrougly interested.
However the next night, (last night,) he was given the choice of reading "Corduroy," and then the Bible, or no books at all. He chose no books at all. So I'm thinking maybe we should dive into the New Testament tonight- maybe all the way to "God's New Kingdom Spreads." Yeah- there seem to be a lot of smiling faces and joy in those chapters. But like "they" say- you can't take the Bible in bits and pieces- that's creating a whole new religion. And if there are going to be villans in Evan's life like Cruella Devil, Jafar, Ursela, and whoever else- well then, he might as well come to grips with the real enemy in this world. If he is going to admire the beauty of the princesses and the strength of the warriors in these films, well then it would be a crime not to introduce him to their Author- to the Ultimate Warrior, the Prince of Beauty, right? Right. Or as Madalyn said after dinner last night, after Evan finished praying over our meal- "Amen!"
