Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Theology, Elise-style

At dinner one night last week, we were having a discussion about the differences between fruits and vegetables. The girls all thought it was extremely weird that pickles, tomatoes, and cucumbers are all fruits, even though we eat them like vegetables. Then it eventually dawns on someone that many of the VEGGIE Tale characters are actually fruits…like Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber and Mr. Nezzar, who is a pickle.

Around this time, Elise piped up, in true know-it-all-preschooler fashion:

“GOD is not a fruit.”

Imagine the silence that overcame the diners at my table as we all tried to process what Elise had just said.

Imagine the giggling the 3 other girls tried unsuccessfully to hide.

But really. When you think about it, it makes sense. Those characters on Veggie Tales Bible Stories are fruits (& vegetables). But God is in Bible Stories and Veggie Tales, too. But He is not a fruit. Therefore, that was a perfectly sane and correct statement to make.

It was just so much the way she said it, as though the rest of us really thought He just might be a fruit. As though she was telling us something we did not know.

Then she ended the conversation with:

“God is a person. And Jesus is my brother. My teacher told me that.”

Beware, for the 3 year old is listening.

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