hill in a handbasket
most people mistakenly think that because i am a minister and a mother, i must have some special, handed-down-from-god, ability to explain matters of the ultimate to children. i’ll never forget walking with the monkey into his school last december. the preschool director had proudly installed a life-sized nativity scene:
she greeted us with a smile and a wink and said, “monkey, i know that YOU of all people must know who all of these characters are!”
she quizzed him on everyone from the animals, to mary and joseph, to jesus, himself. i am here to tell you that apart from the slight recognition of a sheep, my little guy had no earthly idea what the director was talking about.
“we’ll work on this,” i said.
yesterday, i had another opportunity to display my deficits in the area of early childhood religious education when i did the children’s sermon at church. i learned later from the monkey that my explanation of the word “perseverance” had not been clear (as found in the hebrews text, “let us run with perseverance the race set before us”). the monkey informed me confidently, as he was attempting to dismount his new trampoline, that i had nothing to worry about. he was “not going to have perseverance.” when i flashed a puzzled look he said, “that means that i am not going to get too tired or fall down.” hmmn…
finally, the monkey and i had the following interaction before bedtime last night. i was singing, and he was to fill in the gaps in the song with rhyming phrases:
mommy: (singing) “the ants go marching 12 by 12 hurrah, hurrah; the ants go marching 12 by 12, the little one stops to…”
monkey: “…go to hell!”
mommy: “what? what is hell?”
monkey: “it’s just a place you go.”
mommy: (dumbfounded) “well, where in the world have you heard of this place?”
monkey: “all the time, mommy. you know… when i go up a hill…”
mommy: “so you are saying HILL?”
monkey: “yes!”
mommy: “oh, thank god.”
so, to all the moms out there who know how to talk to children about divnity and mystery, i have a proposition to make. you give my children a foundation of stories — a framework upon which they might hang their questions later. you give them an overwhelming sense that god is love, and you inspire them to give love in return.
then, when your children get to college, you can send them to me. i will happily return to my old college chaplaincy roots. we’ll talk about our questions, our doubts, and the notion that there’s wisdom in recognizing the vast expanse of what we don’t know. we’ll work on integrating head and heart, thinking and being.
i hope this plan works for you because if it doesn’t, my children are clearly going to hill in a hand basket.
Tags: baby jesus, divinity, hebrews, josephy, mary, mystery, nativity scene, perserverence, preschool
August 16th, 2010 at 8:52 am
We have a dvd of the Easter story for children that my 2 year old loves to watch. Jesus–she calls it. For a while during our move, the dvd was not to be found. “Jesus is missing,” she’d say mournfully. I said it once and thought, “hmm…I don’t like how that sounds.” But how to explain to a 2 year old that Jesus isn’t missing–just the dvd!!
August 16th, 2010 at 9:10 am
Hill-arious!
August 16th, 2010 at 9:21 am
I simply adore this post. And relate, a whole hill of a lot.
August 16th, 2010 at 10:15 am
I am cracking up over this. I once had to take my elder son to a church committee meeting because I had no sitter. He was three. A couple of people asked him about Christmas, and I held my breath, waiting for him to talk all about Santa and the Bat Cave he wanted. And of course he did. Luckily he also correctly volunteered the three things the wise men brought to Baby Jesus, so I felt a little better about his spiritual education.
August 16th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
SO many stories to add… where to begin…
One Sunday teaching the 5 year olds, our lesson book had us talking about Moses working “to free god’s people from slavery in Egypt”. During the reading of the age-adjusted story, I asked if the children knew what slaves are, and one child said, “yes, they’re like the elves!” hmm….
preschool theology is my speed. You can have the big questions, I’ll take that deal!
August 16th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
I can’t think of anything more fun than going down the hill in a handbasket, on a snow day. Not to worry, he has a good heart.
August 16th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
I am laughing out loud. I don’t think it matters what vocation your parents have, kids understand their own way. Mine think I work in a hospital with alligators (which I later learned was really elevators. They also think all do is talk on the “red phone” at the nurses’ station to the sick people…By the way, sick people are cured by Santa…
August 17th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
my camp job pulled me away from reading anything on the web (no internet access does that). four weeks later i’m just now reconnecting with my on-line friends & what a great time! thanks for this. i’ll keep my expectations low for my own little PK 🙂