“And Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’”?” -Matthew 21:16
In light of the festive Christmas season upon us, and particularly in light of the reason for the season, I thought to share a true story about encountering Jesus…through the eyes of a child:
I sat down at the kitchen table next to my not-quite-three-year-old granddaughter. A few moments later, when I asked her if she was enjoying her lunch, she answered, “Yes, I am!” and then promptly began holding forth about a story. It seems…
“There was a big storm and Jesus made it stop!”
“Oh, wow!” I said. “Really? And then what?”
“Uh-huh. And then, um…then Peter was in the water and he got out and…and Jesus saved him in the boat!”
“Wow! Jesus did that? And then what happened?”
“Uh-huh. And then they went to the beach!”
“To the beach? How nice!”
“Uh-huh”—getting more excited by the second. “And then they built sandcastles!”
“What?! Sandcastles?!
“Uh-huh, and you were there, too!”
“Yes, I sure was. And you, too!” I was catching on.
“Uh-huh, I was there.”
Now, I realized at the sandcastle part that she might have been mixing up her stories—since we were at the beach together the month before—and I even started in to correct that part of her story. But then it came to me that maybe she wasn’t mixing them up as much as I thought; that she had captured the heart of something Jesus was showing her, and had her way of telling it. So I said something different instead:
“Wasn’t that amazing? We built sandcastles on the beach with Peter and Jesus!”
“Uh-huh. We did.”
Yes, we did. And with that, she went back to eating her sandwich. Yet, I think I was the one who got the most full that day.
I hope this encourages you to spend time talking about Jesus with your precious little one today.
Have a Merry Christmas!
Kevin Murray
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Beautiful ♥
Awesome!