A Fear Diagnosed
We tried again last night, with semi-success, to read Evan's new Bible. I explained that there were lots of new stories in it and we would read a new one- not the old, terrifying one- a new one. He reluctantly agreed and we turned open to Abraham and Sarah and God growing His people.
I'm not sure Evan heard much because the entire time I read he was soothing himself saying, "It's not the fire one. There's not fire. It's not the fire one..."
So it became very apparent that the snake didn't scare him, nor the concept of sin, nor all the villages destroyed in the flood. What scared him was the page illustrating sin in the world that came from Adam and Eve's choice. It shows a woman running from a fire, a boy raising a club to a growling dog, a woman stealing a loaf of bread...things of that nature. But of those things, the fire scares him. Just like in his book If You Give a Pig a Party, for some inexplicable reason, the peanut butter and jelly page scares him.
I figure it's okay he didn't get anything out of last night's lesson, so long as we're overcoming the fear-factor. And I think we are, because after we read I told him again that he didn't need to be scared of the fire page-that it was just showing all the bad things that came when Adam and Eve didn't listen to God-but Jesus came to protect us from those things-that He wants to give us good things, and now He even loves us when we don't listen because of Jesus.
As I said these things, I slowly opened the page again that I was talking about, so that I could see, but at an angle that he couldn't really see...and would you guess what happened as he cautiously peeked over to look with me, and carefully listened to what I was saying?
He got a huge grin on his face- the grin of an overcomer! God is good, and Evan knows this. Praise Him!
