1,2,3,4,5,6,7 – Jesus made a way to Heaven!
Red, yellow, pink, and blue – Jesus died for me and you!
From Cayden’s Miss Pattycake Video. I was sick, Cayden was home, watching a video is easier than playing with a 2 year-old when your sick…at least that is what I thought. Then we watched it – then I got real sick. So much syrup, I should have had pancakes with it.
Cayden is 2. I’m not extremely worried that this version of Jesus is going to stay with her forever. She lives with me so I can pretty much guarantee that it won’t. But I struggle with the way Bible stories are presented to kids. The velvet board Jesus not only always kinda hangs in the middle of the air, he doesn’t look like he could handle the Care Bears – let alone the evil one, AND somehow, someway WE end up being the point of the story as opposed to God.
The Rich Young Ruler comes to mind. Matthew 19:16-22 tells the story. This Velvet Board Jesus jams a prestigious visitor. Someone everyone else thought had “it.” You know, the whatever “it” was to be a follower of Jesus. And Jesus just humilates him really. Everyone in the scene is guilty – particularly the disciples.
Everyone thinks the point is to be “moral,” to behave correctly so people will look at us and say “Man, ain’t he spiritual.” “Man, doesn’t he have ‘it.’” We’ll never say that out loud – we’ll say we are trying to be a good witness.
Jesus’ answer to that is to show up and to ask us to do the very thing we couldn’t do – sell all you have, break off the relationship, take in this orphan.
It’s as if Jesus meets the unspoken sin of pride head on and says – “I am going to ask you to do things you have no power of doing. I am going to continue to put you in places where you are humilated until you get it – it’s not about you. It’s about me.”
“Then when you do get it – I’m still going to put you in places where you have no power to do anything……then I’m going to show up! Trust me. Follow me.”
Marinate on that…
Home
2 Comments
Funny thing…it doesn’t stop at grade school depictions of Jesus. Just go in your local Christian Bookstore and look at all the “Jesus Junk.” It’s all pink and frilly and purple and gold (of course, purple and gold are are LSU colors, so they rock…but I digress)…even the portaits of Jesus on the cross are aesthetically pleasing so we can hang them in our living rooms and look spiritual. I’m going to Dillard’s to see if they have any camel hair loin cloths…I’m going to go out and rock the Sappy Jesus junkies world!
Stu,
I love it, I heard a man say once; if you can do what God asked you to do, then it probably wasn’t God. He asks us to do what is impossible for man to do. Preach on!
Pete