Sacred Memories part 2

Years ago I taught Sunday school to three-year olds. Each year my class had varying numbers ranging from 5 to almost 10 children, I believe. And each class was beautiful in its own way. Each Sunday during story time I would light our story candle and begin the Bible story. The children, for the most part sat quietly, listening carefully to the story (most parents are totally shocked when I tell them this, especially that their children sat on the floor next to an open flame!). During the time of wondering about the story there were always some amazingly insightful comments as well as a smattering of random comments that came, seemingly, from out of nowhere. You know the ones. "Teacher, teacher, I have the Lion King movie at home." I was totally used to those kinds of comments and usually with a small amount of redirection we were right back on track wondering about the story, or there was an opportunity to connect their experience of the movie they watched with the story.

One particular day though I had a comment come out of left field that totally baffled me. I had no idea what to say or do. I think we all just sat there quietly for a bit. I was telling a story about Jesus, and I have no recollection which one, but in the middle of the story a boy all of a sudden called out, "I ain't afraid of no Jesus." Oh, wait, I did say something. I think I told him how wonderful it was that he wasn't afraid of Jesus or something like that. But I'm still left pondering what led him to say those particular words. Often the more random comments are not as random as we think. The kids are usually just thinking about something else, their minds are wandering, just like any adult's mind wanders. The only difference is that children say what they're thinking and adults have learned to keep those things to themselves so that nobody knows that they're not listening. The Lion King comments make sense to me, even if they are seemingly unrelated. But I still wonder about "I ain't afraid of no Jesus."