Blog post for Going Home Stories blog I WANT YOU TO KNOW. www.goinghomestories.com/blog

Part 2 in the Raising an Aware Child series of posts

“Christmas isn’t about Jesus, Dada.”

I felt the immediate rush of adrenaline as I prepared myself to lunge for my son before the lightning struck.  OK, maybe not lightning, but I did feel the sudden sensation that something terrible was said.  Just for a moment.  Then I did what we so often do as parents and looked at this comment through his eyes, with his still-developing, innocent brain.

It was the day after Thanksgiving.  We avoided the sales, the lines, the traffic and decided instead to dig out the decorations and untangle the exterior icicle lights.  Our 4 year old son, who has a God-given passion for sketching and painting, decided that he would draw little cut-out ornaments of all the things he could think of that have to do with Christmas.  There was the usual:  Santa Claus, Rudolph, Christmas tree, snowman, bells, the elusive snowflake, etc.

He came into the kitchen and asked me “What else can I draw for the ornaments?”  After I rattled off most of the above list (much to his frustration), thinking of those fun little icons that children gravitate toward during the holiday season, I got around to saying, “How about Baby Jesus?”.  That’s when he stated the aforementioned, almost in a tone that he might one day use as a teenager when moaning “Daaaaad, that’s SO lame.”

I quickly realized that I can’t expect him to remember the Christmas books from last year or our previous explanations of the Christmas Season.  It is, after all, a simple fact that where we place our priorities during the holidays is where our children place theirs.  If I had questioned him further at that moment, I might have discovered that he also thought, in lieu of all the prayers of thanks, that Thanksgiving was about “eating a lot of food and doing dishes”.

But, with wide eyes and a tone to excite a 4 year old, I looked at him and said “Of course Christmas is about Jesus… the whole reason we even have Christmas if because of Jesus.  We’re celebrating his BIRTHDAY!”

Then it clicked.

“You mean Christmas is for Jesus?”

He let out his giggle of giddiness, leaned forward onto his toes, and scrunched his shoulders together with hands clasped as he so often does when a tremor of excitement shoots through this body.  He asked me to show him how to draw the face of Baby Jesus.  He would “draw the animals and shepherds another day.  I just want to draw Baby Jesus today, OK?”

OK.

And there it was.  A simple enough moment, but one that had affected me, too.  Up to this point, creeping thoughts of missed opportunities at the big Black Friday sales had been trying to get in my head all day.  Then this exchange, this little moment of pause that our children give us – a mini RESET button, if you will.  And I knew in an instant that there was no other place I’d rather be.

My 4 year old son draws hands better than I do.

Just a friendly reminder that it’s not too late to get a copy of I Want You to Know: The Wonder of God in time for your big night of present wrapping.  Available at a discounted price on our STORE or with free shipping on AMAZON.

Blog post for Going Home Stories blog I WANT YOU TO KNOW. www.goinghomestories.com/blog