This past Easter we ate the Easter
Bunny for dinner. Yes, we had rabbit and
we all loved it especially my 13 year old foodie. We all got a chuckle out of the irony of
rabbit for dinner. But rabbits aren’t really what Easter is about anyway. One of my favorite Easter stories happened 11
years ago and involves that same girl.
When we last lived in New Jersey we
lived in an area that had a large population of retirement villages. If you’ve read my blog called “The Recovering
Catholic” you know I was Catholic most of my life. We got married in a Catholic Church and I had
both my daughters baptized there as well. But the Catholic Church in my neighborhood was
full of blue hair and sleepy sermons that meant nothing to a young mom with
toddlers. So I went looking something
more meaningful where children we part of the program. I found Redeemer Lutheran Church. Everything seemed purposeful and I credit
it to the pastor for sure. My girls were
2 ½ and 4 at the time and the Pastor was about the same age as I was and had
young family of his own. But somehow he always made his sermons worth listening to for everyone from the retirees to families to singles and even to
little girls.
My girls enjoyed going to Church with me and we went regularly. We also sometimes read stories from their
children’s bible as well. But you never
really know how much your little ones are taking in until they tell you and the
younger one did just that. She was still too young
to attend Sunday school with her older sister so she usually sat with me and
colored or just sat in my lap. Easter
Sunday she was sitting in my lap as usual, facing me and playing with my
necklace. The Pastor began his
sermon. I can remember the first few
lines verbatim because of what happened next.
He began “On the third day Jesus rose again. But that means absolutely nothing if you
don’t first realize that Jesus died.” Then
he paused. The little girl in my lap
looked up at me with big startled eyes and in the quiet of that pause she practically shouted
“Jesus DIED?”
Well
everyone for several pews in front and back of us heard her and we all stifled
a laugh at her beautiful honesty. All I could do was chuckle, give her a big hug and I try come up with an answer that
would satisfy her. I really don’t remember
what I said but whatever it was she accepted it and went back to playing with
my necklace. But she was obviously
listening. We may think we understand our
children and often are able to predict their behavior but more often than not
they will surprise us with the lucid thoughts and innocent perspective. I miss that sweet little girl but I am proud
of the beautiful confident teenager she has become who is still not afraid to
speak her mind.
