Tuesday, May 5, 2009

See

In church on Sunday the girls and I heard about Zachaeus. Not the "...wee, little man who climbed up in the Sycamore tree...", but definitely the man who wanted to see Jesus. Straight out of Luke we met the tax collector who caused the crowd to complain that Jesus was meeting with a sinner. It was pointed out in service that Matthew was also a tax collector. And the tax collector was compared to Bernard Madhoff to further illustrate why Zachaeus and his ilk would be universally disliked. While it was unclear if the girls understood that example, they seemed to follow along well enough with the rest of the teaching.
That evening the girls and I were reading in Mark, and we happened to be reading about Levi. Who was a... yep. A tax collector. The girls commented on the apparent predilection Christ had for tax collectors. Which had us criss-crossing back and forth through the Gospels to compare similarities between people and statements. It also presented the opportunity to offer the girls a new example clarifying the position of tax collectors by likening them to very successful used car salesmen. Which caused Katie to laugh so hard she fell off the couch.
I wondered at the end of the evening if the girls really grasped the importance of our discussion, or if they had been distracted by the sheer quantities of tax collectors and Mom's oddball explanations. This morning, I asked Erin about our weekend's topic. Her response? Direct quote from our littlest girl, "He came for the lost. And for the sinners." Alrighty, then.

5 comments:

dabshire4 said...

Thank God he came for the sinners and not the saints. I would be screwed. :)

The Big Burbs said...

I tell people all the time that I learn so much by helping the 3-6 year old class to color and paste their Sunday school crafts. They always understand way more than I do about the biblical concepts the craft projects are meant to teach!

Beth said...

I would say you made your point well! She gets it.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, she does understand it. And now I have the Zaccheus song stuck in my head.

Leanne said...

Smart little lady. Isn't it amazing how much they figure out? Sounds like you had an eventful weekend....