High Five

As my Jewel and I were settling down for her bed time, we read stories together and then stated it was time to pray. I am so thrilled that, over the past few weeks, my Jewel has moved away from her sing-song standard prayers (which were great and I always made sure she finished before moving on) to prayers where she actually thought about things with her little almost-four-year-old brain.

She prayed for my Beloved, she prayed for her grandparents, she prayed for our home. She prayed for her cousins, aunts and uncles, and her friends. And then, she prayed to Jesus, thanking Him for the cross, and the resurrection, and for being in her heart. I was speechless.

When she was done, I asked her why she prayed that way.

"Because Jesus loves me and had to be on the cross!" she said.

"That's right, the cross!" I responded.

"Yeah!" And she stretched out her arms to emulate the shape of the cross.

"And why did Jesus have to be on the cross?"

"Because, because, he loves me and after three days God made him alive!"

"And what else?"

"And Jesus wants to be in my heart! Now He is everywhere!" she excitedly proclaimed.

And then she held up her hand in the air. Huh???

"HIGH FIVE!"

For a moment I didn't know what to do. She had just made the best attempt she could to explain the love of Jesus and the resurrection, and she was so happy about it she needed recognition in the common guy-form of the high five.

Her hand remained suspended. I was being a terrible guy, leaving her hanging like that.

"HIGH FIVE PAPA!"

And with that, I snapped out of it and held up my hand, and we slapped them together.

She climbed under her covers to go to sleep.

Victory!