a hundred degrees

Darkness and Worms

  My mother has what appears to be a children's book by Gary Larson. Yeah, the Far Side guy. That should have been my first clue. The book is called, "There's a Hair in my Dirt." For all I know we gave her the book. There was no inscription, but I'm bad enough about such things that that's not a guarantee one way or the other.
  Anyway, we read the fool thing to Kevin when we were there last weekend. As he continues to ruminate upon it, he occasionally reminds us, "When we die, worms eat our bodies."

  When I was mowing yesterday I uncovered an earthworm writhing on the grass. I called Kevin to come and look at it, realizing only after it bled on me that the bright sunlight was not what had so agitated it.
  Kevin kills bugs. I'm pretty sure that he understands that this permanently stops them from continuing to crawl around. He's seen a couple of dead family members who he never really knew. I don't think that he's had any experience of death that he could really sympathize with. He's young enough that I still want to protect him from the idea.
  Tonight he asked why Mommy and Daddy went to church. We got Katie from next door to come and watch him. Madeline was blessedly asleep. We left the house about 7:30 and were back before 9:00.
  The service of darkness (the pastor had some Latin sounding name like Tenebrae or something, correct me here) is a simple one for our church. We read the preacher's carefully crafted medly of the gospel accounts of Christ's arrest, trial, torture, crucifixion, and burial. During the reading the many candles lit before the service are slowly extinguished. At one point there was a break in the reading and Lex and I sang Beatiful Scandalous Night. At the end of the reading all the lights are extingished. Then the congregation sang "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord" through the third verse. We leave in silence.
  Christmas is hard enough. Easter is real tough one to explain to a three-year-old. One thing to teach him "He is risen, indeed!" Another to impart any understanding of this.
  My shot at it went something like this: Jesus died for us. He died so that we wouldn't have to. Our bodies will still die. The worms will eat our bodies. But Jesus made it so that our spirits would live: the parts of us that think and love and dream. On Friday night we remember that Jesus died for us. But worms didn't eat his body. On Easter, Sunday, we celebrate that Jesus came alive again. We say that he "rose from the dead." Jesus was the son of God and so he beat death.
  There was a bit more, especially when we prayed later, and it wasn't even this linear. Still, he said he got some of it. He's told me when he didn't understand something, so maybe he did grasp a little. God knows.
  It's interesting to see the integration of rote learning and understanding. When I said "Jesus died for us," he corrected "Christ died for us." I told him that Christ was a title for Jesus, like mister, or general. Never been quick on my toes with anything. It shows in times like these.