After Sunday school yesterday, Christopher told us all about the story of Jesus rising from His tomb. They made a little craft that had a swinging rock opening that he held onto all day. At one point, I had the television on and I was watching The Bible series while I folded laundry. Christopher came in from outside just at the part where they were whipping Jesus. I tried to turn the tv off so he wouldn’t see it but he grabbed my arm and asked me, “Why are they beating that man, Mommy?” So, I reminded him of the story he learned at Sunday school about Jesus and tried to explain to him that there were men that were very unkind to Jesus. Before the program got more violent, I turned it off and Jim and I talked with Christopher and Jacob more about the happy part where Jesus comes back.

We went on through the rest of the afternoon, played some more in the yard, rode bikes then came in and had dinner. But, Christopher must have been thinking a lot about what he saw and learned at Sunday school, because, half way through his bath he got real quiet. Then he looked up and said, “I would do something if I saw them beating Jesus. If I saw those men beating Jesus, I would drive up in a big fire truck and beep the horn to make them stop!”  Jim and I looked at each other and Jim said, “That’s good, buddy. We should always try to help people who are in trouble, shouldn’t we?”  Christopher replied, “Yes, because it’s very bad to be mean to people.”

We walk a fine line in trying to protect our children from things that are frightening yet still be able to teach them about those frightening things and unkind people and how to deal with those situations. I was amazed that, though the scene scared him, he wanted to see it and understand what was happening. It helped me realized that it’s never too early to teach our children about injustice and ways to deal with it. I love that he conjured up the biggest thing he could think of believing the sight of a big red truck would save the day. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if that’s really all it took to save others?