Happy Easter Morning

I’ve been teaching preschoolers in Sunday School for many, many years. I enjoy it. It’s just more fun than going to Sunday School with adults. We laugh more. We move more. And the snacks are often better.

Several years ago, I was out of town on Easter Sunday. The young man who taught four-year-olds with me each week was in charge. He was quite capable, and I had great trust in him. A couple of weeks after I returned, one of our kid’s mom was chatting with me.

“You were gone on Easter, right?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“Well, I got some interesting feedback from my son,” she went on. And she related the Easter Sunday morning Bible story that he had told her.

There were some people and they were putting Easter eggs on a big tree. And Jesus came and helped the people put more Easter eggs on the tree, but he kept making people change where the eggs were. There were more details, but that was the gist of it.

“That doesn’t sound like anything I could imagine he heard,” I said. “But I’ll check.”

I did check. My co-teacher was as surprised as I was. Yes, there was a group-time story about Jesus. None of the described details had been included. I assured him that I never for one minute questioned the accuracy of the story he told.

“He’s very imaginative, that kid,” I said. “And, I know that, last Christmas, he told his teacher at school that his family would catch those big old cockroaches, spray paint them, and hang them on their Christmas tree as ornaments. So, I guess he’s just adding some thrilling, arresting elements to stories he thinks aren’t interesting enough. Maybe he’ll grow up to be a novelist.”

This is one of my favorite depictions of Jesus (as seen by my artist friend, Gena Deeds-Page

Maybe he will. In the meantime: