Thursday, November 18, 2010

Mom, where's Jesus?

Huh?
Where is He?
Who?
Jesus?
At church.

That's how the conversation went. I thought it was the end, but oh, it was only the beginning.
First let me give an explanation and some background. When we pray, she often asks who are we praying to and why. I tell her we pray to Jesus because Jesus helps people. SO, she wanted to know where He was. When I told her church, I said it because I just KNEW that when we went to church there would be a picture, or sculpture or some depiction of Jesus there. And I was going to point it out to her. As usual, because NOTHING in my life goes as planned, on Sunday at church there was no picture, no statue, no painting. That night another conversation began at bedtime.

Mom, where's Jesus? I thought you said He was at church.
He is.
Well I did not see him.
That is because he is inside of you?
Inside of me, like in my belly?
No silly, just inside of you like in your heart.
Oh.

Success! I came up with an answer that was semi-logical. Or so I thought.

We were talking about Christmas and said to her,
"Hey baby, did you know Christmas we Jesus' birthday?"
No. How Mommy?
What do you mean how?
How is it His birthday if He never came out of my tummy?
What?!?
My tummy mom. Jesus is still inside of me. He didn't come out so how is it His birthday?

There you have it. My 3 year old thinks she is literally carrying Jesus.

I think I came up with a good answer. I told her Jesus was in the Bible and at Sunday School.
Some of you may think the Sunday school answer was passing the buck. Maybe you're right.

Has anyone else encountered a similar situation? How do you explain religion and the concept of higher powers to young kids?

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