The Body & Blood of Christ...according to Luke

Dearest Joshua and Luke,

Things have been quite busy, but I have to tell you that writing these blog entries for you two is one of my most favorite things to do for so many reasons.  I love the fact that these entries will be here for you and your children and other generations to come if they are interested.  (How can they NOT be?) I love that this process forces me to share so many of the things you are doing in your lives ~ and our lives.  They are so many things that happen in a week.  Daddy and I often say, "Oh!   I need to blog about that!"  One thing for sure is that I never sit down at the keyboard and wonder what I am going to write.  You two provide me with so many ideas! 

Luke's story of the week:

Luke is holding up the body and blood of Jesus.  The orange
container had a lot ore water in it.  Luke used the big container to
pour the wine into the smaller cup.  Notice the white cloth he
put over the wine. 

I came home from work one afternoon and Luke came running out of the house to say that he had Jesus's blood in a small flowered  cup.  Luke said, "Don't you want some of Jesus's blood, mom?"  Of course I did. (Of course, I probably did not look as excited as I was wondering where the water had come from.  You never know!)   Luke said, "Don't worry, mom, it's really just water."  He led me into the house to show me that he had been mixing water and "wine" (more water) together to make Jesus's blood for communion.  He had the small flower cup of wine and an old McDonald's pumpkin Happy Meal container full or water or more wine to mix together. 

Of course Joshua had to give it a try, too!  :) 

He lifted both hands over the water to give it a special blessing that went something like, "Thissssssss is the bloooooood of Jesussssss."  Then, Luke had found an old jelly lid in the kitchen drawer about two inches around.  He had gotten a wheat four tortilla shell from the refrigerator and tore it into very small pieces.  He put all of the pieces in the jelly lid and held it up as the body of Jesus.  Once again he put his hands over it and blessed it with, "Thisssssss is the bodyyyyy of Jesussssss."  He did this over and over again offering neighbors and anyone he could the body and blood of Christ.  Joshua realized how much fun Luke was having and begged for a turn to try blessing it and passing out the "communion."  When it was time to go to Joshua's piano lessons a few minutes later, Luke insisted on taking Jesus's body with him.  I let him take it.  He was trying to pass it out to anyone that would take it.  Most of the people he showed it to took a piece, although I am certain they were wondering how safe it was, too! Maybe even what it actually was!

I have to tell you that I was a  really proud mom.  We often talk about telling others about Jesus.  I think this was a creative way for Luke to share his faith with others.  I know his playing today had to make at least a few people and kids think about what he was doing.  It was clear that this was a very important project to Luke.  Luke has spent the last two years going to the Atrium at church where he is actively learning about Jesus and our church.  He has many opportunities to play, act out, and just be in the presence of God's works.   I know this has been a big part of his faith and learning.  Luke is full of questions about Jesus, heaven, God ~ and today even the devil.  I have learned to say, "I don't know.  What do you think?"  I do try to emphasize all of the wonderful things to be thankful for and that we are all here to be disciples of Jesus.  We need to be doing Jesus's work while we are here." 

Joshua's story:

Happy Easter!  Notice the two guys in suits!

This is from almost a month ago, but it was too good to forget.  I had to write about it.  A few weeks ago, you heard about what a fun filled Easter break we had ~ full of cousins, playing, swimming, more playing, etc.  On the first day back to school, I asked Joshua what his favorite part of the Easter vacation was....he said, "Dad and I wearing our suits to church on Easter!"  No hesitation.  He knew that was the highlight.  Now I must tell you that the day before Easter, Dad was getting his clothes ready for Easter mass the next day.  I told him that he could wear his khaki pants with almost any nice shirt he had.  Eric said, "Yeah, but Joshua really wants me to wear my suit when he wears his suit tomorrow."  I basically told him good luck with that because I knew that your dad had not worn a suit in a very long time.  I did not think the pants would even fit him because he has lost some weight.  But....your dad worked diligently to get his suit and tie together so that he could wear a suit with Joshua. 

Joshua was beaming when he saw his dad in a suit the next morning. I also have to tell you that we have one good looking family when everyone goes out the door, Elsa, Ethan, Uncle Luke, Aunt Lisa, Grammy, Papa and of course our family, but Daddy and Joshua were looking THE sharpest that day! Daddy knew exactly what you needed him to do that day.  It is funny how dads and moms often figure out what is really important and come through with it for you.

I love you both more today than I did yesterday!

Love,
Mama