Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Whatever You Do, Don't Laugh

Yesterday while on a neighborhood walk, I'd casually talked to John about the upcoming Ash Wednesday and Lent. So, during bedtime prayers, Chris and I weren't entirely surprised when John interrupted us (as a three-year-old is wont to do) with talk about Jesus' death. We were praying when John interjected, "Jesus was on the cross. And there were nails in his hands and they hurt really, really bad."

Katherine: "Yes, honey, they did hurt really bad."

John: "And then Jesus died."

Katherine: "Yes, he died."

John: "Just like bugs." (John knows of only three things that die: bugs, squirrels, and Jesus.)

Katherine: "Yes, bugs die too."

John: "Sometimes bugs die. And then we put them in our magnifying glass jar that Grampa Neil gave us. But not the other magnifying glass [one that hangs on a necklace], but in the jar."

Our boy went on a bit more about the details of bugs dying while Chris and I closed our eyes and tried to be very reverent in prayer to hide our laughter at how sweet our boy is.

On the topic, today's Mass for Ash Wednesday went very well. We went to our own parish this year so the children did receive ashes, unlike last year when we went to a different parish where the priest did not give ashes to children. Sadly, I don't have a photo because the kids had each inadvertently wiped off their ashes before we even left the church.

2 comments:

  1. How do you NOT laugh at that??? :)

    There's just something SO refreshing about a child's innocent honesty.

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  2. Precious! We have a huge cross that hangs in our church. I always have tried to focus our children's attention on Jesus hanging on the cross. Both boys have made comments about Jesus's boo boos and that he needs a bandaid.

    The innocense of children is beautiful!

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