Saturday, February 11, 2012

the EvangeCube

I got to spend Friday with my nephews and it was wonderful. Much needed aunt-nephew time. Please "Ooh" and "Ahh" over baby Samuel who is almost 8 months.


Seriously. I want to kiss those cheeks till Jesus returns.

Speaking of Jesus, Judah (3 years old) and I played with my Dad's EvangeCubes toward the end of our day together. Have you seen or heard of these EvangeCubes? There are no words, just pictures. And you flip it around like a puzzle, each new flip shows another part of the gospel.


My dad takes these when he and my mom go on mission trips so they can share about Jesus. He has a bunch of little ones and one big one. Judah and I were playing with the big one and he was looking at all the pictures and asking questions. "What's that stone for?" (the stone that covers Jesus' tomb), etc.

He turned to the crucifixion. It is not a pleasant image. Jesus is nailed to the cross, wearing the crown of thorns, and bleeding. The artist even made the clouds dark and red behind Jesus.


Judah: "Who is this?"

Me: "That's Jesus."

Judah: "What's he doing?"

Me: (frantically thinking how to explain this to a 3 year old. I guess just go for it.) "He is dying on a cross."

Judah: "Why?"

Me: "Because he loves us. He died for our sins."

Sister Amy, in the other room: "Judah, remember we talked about this. You know how you get a time-out when you make bad choices? When Jesus died on the cross, it was like he went on the time-out for you so you didn't have to."

Judah: "Why?"

Me: "Because he loves you. And he loves me. He loves all of us."

Judah studied the picture on the EvangeCube for about 10 more seconds. Then he looked up, smiled, and said, "I want to die on a cross."

I had been looking down and my head flipped up to look at him. I had a panicky face but tried to cover it up with a nonchalant look, so my expression was probably quite interesting.

Me: "Um, you want to die on a cross?"

Judah: (smiling and looking at the crucifixion). "Yep. And I want mommy to die on a cross. And daddy to die on a cross. And baby brother to die on a cross."

I had no idea how to react. So I ended up just laughing uncomfortably.

Oh EvangeCubes.

1 comment:

New Branch said...

oh evangecubes! oh husband who talked to him about this too! oh little son who i am constantly trying to figure out how to parent! seriously, for a kid who wakes up because he has 'bad dreams', what about dying on a cross sounds appealing? someone please explain. i'll be lurking in the comment section for answers. thanks.