The Book of Revelation

The boys chose to read out of B's Action Bible tonight.  Its the Bible that has comic book-like drawings.  B's favorite drawings are the ones in Revelation.  I mean, the evil red dragon with all the heads and Jesus on his white horse with sword drawn IS an amazing depiction of the final days.

 

I almost made a suggestion for another story.  I don't pretend to understand the book of Revelation.  So much symbolism and strange stories.  But B loves the drawings.  Good and evil.  Good guy vs. bad guy. 

 

I loved listening to B read with such expression as the four horsemen road in from the heavens.  The Conqueror on the white horse, War on the red horse, Famine on the black horse and Death on the pale horse.  Earth looked bleak as people chose to worship the dragon with his false promises.  Ty started to look upset.  He asked B to stop reading because he was afraid he would have nightmares about the dragon, the Devil. 

 

But B told him to just wait.  That there was a reason he wasn't scared of that dragon anymore.  JESUS, came riding on his horse, sword drawn and the warrior angels right behind him.  And B explained to Ty that Jesus defeats the devil.  The Bible says so.  And B tells Ty that his favorite drawing is the last one.  The tree of life, standing by the still waters, surrounded by all the gold.  After the dragon is thrown into the pit for a thousand years.

 

As I sat quietly and listened, he told Ty that they may even have a golden Wii there that they could play.  And Ty said he wanted the Yoshi game.

 

The end of the best story ever asked if Jesus was knocking at the door, would you open it?  And B looks at Ty and said, "well would YOU open it, Ty?"  And Ty says "YES!"

 

My boys.  Tiny versions of their future selves.  Such promise and gifts from God.  Inspiration to invite Jesus into my life every day.  He is real.  And what an amazing conquering warrior to point my boys to.  A true hero who has already won.

A conversation with my big guy

God gave me a little confirmation that this more simple life we are purposely choosing is the right direction.  Saturday night Braden and I participated in a little work at the church to pay off a future trip to camp.  On the way from Panera, where we picked up donated bread and pastries to wrap and sell at the church, we passed by my old high school.  I told him that was the place his Daddy and I fell in love.  He wasn't so interested in that.  Then we passed the soccer fields and I told him how much I loved gym class.  That by the time high school rolls around, most girls don't like gym.  By then they are wearing makeup, and worrying a lot about how they look so they don't like getting sweaty at school.  Then I told him that I just wasn't one of those girls.  If the sprinklers were on during class, no one was stopping me and my friend Christen from playing in them.  We would hit the tennis balls over the fence on purpose so we could go get them while the water was watering the fields.  Often we would go back to class with hair drenched.  We had so much fun.

 

I think this story struck a chord in my big guy who isn't a huge fan of school so far, but loves gym class and recess.  He said to me,

 

"That's the kind of girl I want to marry.  One who loves to have fun and doesn't care so much about the way she looks."

 

I said, "Babe, if you look for a girl who loves Jesus first, likes to have fun and doesn't care so much how she looks, that will be a good one to marry."

 

Then I told him that if he could only look for that one, the one God has already picked out, and not waste his time chasing after other girls that just look pretty, like most boys do in high school, he will certainly find her sooner than later.  He was all for that.

 

These are the moments I'm afraid I would miss if we were running ragged with our schedule and I was too stressed out being late for something less important.  I so need these moments of just hanging out together and chatting.  I just can't schedule these kinds of talks.  These little tiny lessons come in short bursts for us.  I have to have time to recognize them and put a plug in.

 

I didn't think I'd be talking about girls to my son at 8 years old, but if I can touch on it and move on, maybe something will stick or come back to him later.  Oh, I hope so, Lord.