It all began at Christmas when my daughter was 4 years old. It was the first time that she ever began asking what Christmas was all about. I explained to her that this was celebrating the birth of Jesus.
She wanted to know more about him, and so we bought a kid’s bible and had readings at night. She loved him. Wanted to everything about Jesus.
So we read a lot about his birth and about his teaching. And she would ask constantly what that phrase was, and I would explain that it was, “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.”
So, we talked about those old words and what it all meant.
And then one day we were driving past a big church and out front was an enormous crucifix. She said, “Who is that?”
I guess I had never really told that part of the story. So, I said, “That is Jesus."
I explained that he ran afoul of the government in Rome. This message that he had was so radical and unnerving to the prevailing authorities at the time that they had to kill him. They came to the conclusion that he would have to die. His message was too troublesome.
It was about a month later after that when we had gone through the whole story of what Christmas meant and it was mid-January and her pre-school held the same holidays as everyone else.
So, on MLK day, I kicked off work and we played together, and then we went to lunch. As we sat down at the diner table, there was this newspaper where we happened to plop down, and there was this picture of MLK, big as life.
So she said, “Who is that?”
And I said, “As it happens, that is Martin Luther King and that is why you are not in school today. We are celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday.”
And she said, “So who is he?”
And I said, “He was a preacher.”
And she said
“For Jesus?”
And I said, “Yes, but he had another message.”
And she asked, “Well, what did he say?”
I said, “Well.. he said, 'You should treat everybody the same no matter what they look like.'”
She though about that for a minute. Then she said, “Well, that is what Jesus said.”
And I thought about it. And I said, “Well, I never thought of it that way but I guess you are right.”
And she thought for a minute. Then she looked up at me and said,
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Register
Profile
FlintTalk.com Forum Index
> Open chat
