A whale of a tale...

Jack Everett loves the story of Jonah and the Big Fish. He has the book here at home, another version at Mel's and at Nana's, but his favorite is a 30-minute VHS movie from a classic Bible Story Series. The movie is animated, and Jonah is telling a young boy "Mokee" his story.

I have watched it with him several times, assuming most of the terminology and language is over his head. I asked him to tell me the story of Jonah this morning and was totally amazed at the detail and phrases he remembered. Looks like we may have to really talk over some of the themes of the story.

Notice how he switches from 1st person to 3rd person often. When telling the story, he suddenly becomes Jonah. While telling the story, he cannot sit still... he is such a boy. As a result, my hand-held camera can't stay focused on him. The annoying clicking sound is my camera auto-focusing.

This story turned out MUCH longer than I anticipated so I had to post it on "YouTube" in order to download it. Please comment if you have trouble viewing it.

My favorite part is at 3:30 on the video... "Where do you live? Who do you obey? What God do you worship?... What have you DONE? My name is Jonah. I am a Hebrew. I worship the Lord and God who made the sea and the world."

God gave us these children so that we may raise them up to learn about Him, worship Him and spread the Good News about Him. I was again amazed at how much our children are taking in every day. Much more than we often realize. They are so capable of learning and retaining the messages they receive. I was reminded today what a responsibility it is to make sure they are receiving the right messages - about following God's direction in their lives... about His love.