The Gospel According to a 20 Month Old

In honor of Good Friday and Easter...

We started talking about Jesus and God more explicitly a couple weeks ago when we were talking about why we go to church (to learn about Jesus and God). They got really into their Bible after that (The Jesus Storybook Bible), and have been making me read them the story of the crucifixion and resurrection over and over every day ("Jesus ows"), sometimes crying if we can't read their Bible right then.

Though I don't think they could tell you the whole thing straight through, here's what we have so far (what the girls say in red, sometimes prompted, by my questioning or the pictures, sometimes unprompted)...

Garden of Eden - the people listen to the snake and not to God, so God tells them to leave. Ssss...no God. People bad.

Jesus's tempation - Jesus doesn't listen to the snake, he listens to God. No ssss. God. Was Jesus ever bad? No. Who should we listen to? God.

Leading up to the crucifixion - Jesus washes everyone's feet because they're dirty. Dirty. Are we bad sometimes? Opposites. (I take that as a yes-see this post). Well, just like he washed their feet, Jesus washes away our badness. Jesus eats with his friends. When we eat, who should we remember? Jesus. The bad mister (Judas - there's a picture) tells the people where to find Jesus. Bad. Jesus prays and asks God to not make him get ows. (Praying with hands). What does God say? No. Jesus says okay. Okay.

The crucifixion - (Pictures of Jesus carrying the cross and then on it). Jesus ows. (Profuse blowing of kisses by the girls and whatever Little Person/baby they have at the time - Jesus also wore a sticker for a few days). Jesus asked God to help, did God listen? God no. Hence the "Jesus ows God no" that gets repeated over and over. Any surprise that the picture of Jesus on the cross is my morbid/blood-obsessed girls' favorite? Why did Jesus have to get ows? People bad. They put his body in a rock. Bobby rock.

Resurrection - They go to look for Jesus and the rock is empty. Empty. (picture of Jesus). Jesus no ows. Who healed Jesus? God. The people were happy. People happy. Jesus talks to a Mrs. (Mary) and she runs to tell everyone. Happy Jesus. Jesus goes and sees his friends and eats with them. Then he has to tell them bye bye. Bye bye. Heaven. God. Jesus. Where is Jesus now? Heaven. God. Jesus. Are you going to see Jesus in Heaven one day? Happy.

Other good Bible facts they know:

Jesus is going to (one day) wipe every tear from their eye, so when they're crying really hard sometimes they say "Jesus" over and over, since of course they need him to come wipe their tears. It brings me to tears too, it's so sweet. That's what they tell me will happen in Heaven too. The story of Zaccheus - that he climbed in a tree to see Jesus, Jesus went to his house and Jesus loved him even though he was mean. A good story for teaching them that Jesus loves them even when they're bad and mean (and that mom and dad do too!). They also like God creating all the animals, David and Goliath, and Noah (and now think the baby should be named Noah, or Oh-oosie, a made up word they find hilarious). Hard to beat Jesus with ows, though. :)

We pray that their hearts and minds (and attention spans!) will always stay this open to God's word. (And, as usual, these videos were shot at times they'd rather not be paying attention to me - they usually do a lot better answering questions).