I always bring my IPad to church for my granddaughter, Kaitlyn, 4, to draw on during the sermon. She draws using PaintSparkle and her favorite thing to draw is “Jesus on the Cross.” While we sat in church, she drew Jesus and placed the black dots (nails) and then the red dots (blood), and then she placed a big X on her drawing. “Why did you put an X on your drawing?” I asked in a whisper. She whispered back, “I don’t want Jesus to die on the cross anymore.” I was touched by her answer; I had tears. This little girl truly understands how Jesus suffered on the cross. She had asked me twice before, “Will Jesus die on the cross again when we are in heaven?” (This question has never entered my mind.) I told her, “NO! He already did that. He does not have to die again.”
When we got back home that day, she asked to see pictures of Jesus on the cross again. As I looked for images on the IPad, she said, “Find me a picture with not much blood.” I showed her a picture with just a little blood on the nail marks and she asked, “They did they beat Him up?” She knows Jesus had been beaten up badly. At that very moment, I asked myself, “Have I truly understood the sufferings of my Savior for me?”
As I scrolled from image to image, the picture of Jesus carrying the heavy cross on His shoulders, stumbling to the ground amid the sneer and ridicule of those around Him, was too much for the child to bear. “No more!” she said. “Why did they do that to Him?” And so I told her that we do not have to look at pictures anymore.
But she wanted to continue looking. Her eyes got big when pictures of the Resurrection of Jesus showed. “Jesus is alive! He arose 3 days after He was put in the tomb,” I told her. “Good! Nobody can hurt Jesus anymore!” she remarked. And she knows that Jesus went up to heaven and someday, we will live with Him for all eternity.
This four-year-old seems to understand more about Jesus’ suffering than us adults. From her ‘made up’ songs that say: “Jesus is the King” and “Jesus died for me, too!” her love for Jesus truly shows.
The following day, I saw her staring at a picture of 3 crosses in a magazine that came in the mail. Pointing at the picture, she asked, “Grandma, why are there 3 crosses? Where is Jesus here?” I looked at the little girl and told her that I will tell her that story at another time. I don’t think she would understand about the 2 thieves who were also nailed to the cross that day.
May we truly feel in our hearts the suffering of Christ on the cross, and that He rose from the dead, giving us the gift of forgiveness and eternal life to all who would like to receive it.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever shall believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”