Tonight I posted this to Facebook:
Jessica’s prayer tonight, “Dear Jesus, thank you for sending the Holy Spirit to live in my heart so that I will know what I need to do.” That kid is pretty amazing!!!! There are some things that seem very simple that she really struggles to get, but then there are other things that she “gets” years (if not decades) before most people! Pretty awesome to watch!!
But I wanted to take a moment to share how that came about. Jessica asked me to tell her the story about Jesus dying on the cross and being put into the tomb as I was tucking her into bed tonight (she has been a bit obsessed with this story since Easter) so I started telling her The Story.
“A long time ago, Jesus was having Passover with his disciples just like when we have Passover.” At this point she interjected and wanted to know what a disciple was so I explained that they were his friends, the ones who followed him. “While they were celebrating Passover, they drank the cups of juice and the pieces of matzah.” Again she interjected with “The juice is his blood, and the bread is his body.” “That’s right Jessica. Jesus told his friends that he wanted them to remember him when they drank the cup of juice and the piece of matzah because he was going away. Then Judas, one of his friends, told the religious leaders where to find Jesus, and they came and arrested him and put him on trial.” Again Jessica interjected “Why did they do that?” “It wasn’t very nice was it? They made a bad choice didn’t they? They judged Jesus to be guilty and put him on a cross and killed him. Then they put him in a tomb.” Again Jessica interjected “That’s Easter!” “Yes, Jessica, Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, and then he went and spent time with lots of friends until it was time for him to go to Heaven to be with God. But, he told his friends that he was sending them a special gift on Shavout (Pentacost) so they wouldn’t be alone.” Again Jessica interjected “On Shavout?! What was it (the gift)?!” “Well, they waited in a room, and it got very windy and little pieces of fire appeared on their heads. It was the Holy Spirit coming to live in their hearts so they would know what to do.” Again Jessica interjected “Does the Holy Spirit live in my heart too?” “Yes, Jessica.” At this moment Jessica prayed “Dear Jesus, thank you for sending the Holy Spirit to live in my heart so that I will know what I need to do.”
What I love the most about this moment with Jessica is how 1) She grasped the important part of The Story and 2) How she understands that you can always drop everything to thank God for anything and everything (she often thanks God for inanimate objects like her ‘Jessica doll,’ houses, clothes, towels, etc).
I also love how celebrating Jewish holidays in our home has helped Jessica to learn about the Bible. We spent years trying all kinds of different ways of teaching Jessica about who God is, and I finally had an epiphany “God used holidays to teach the Israelites about who He was after several hundred years of slavery….if it could work for them, perhaps it could work for Jessica.” I am constantly amazed at how effective it has been at teaching Jessica about who God is! With all of the technology, visual aids, and manipulatives we have these days, it is the Jewish holiday calendar that has been around for thousands of years that finally reached my little girl and taught her who God is! Sometimes we think we are so smart and so evolved, but when we humble ourselves before the throne of God, we realize just how perfect His plan really is!
As Paul Harvey would say, “And now you know the rest of the story.”
