Listen more. Question less.

I've been taking our Christmas decorations down today.   Ellie hasn't been playing with the nativity much, so every time I've walked past it today I've considered boxing it up until next year. 

I argue with myself constantly about every decision I make when it comes to that child... 

 

Including the decision I made to leave the nativity out.  

 

"What if she can't separate the idea of a Jesus in Heaven and the one on the table?  What if it confuses her that He's a baby but the One we talk about does adult things?  Will this lead to her praying to the plastic Jesus like an idol? Or will it help? Will she be BFFs with Jesus and play with Him every day?  Will she develop a closer relationship with Him at an early age because she can actually see and hold Him?  Will she 'get it'?  Blah blah blah."  Parenting paranoia prevails.

 

The way I am in constant controversy with myself over parenting decisions I've made with this child, I'm surprised I've made it two years without having to be on medication.  
It's ridiculous.  

 

Anyway...
Ellie hasn't spent much time with the nativity lately.  

At least not that I've noticed.  

 

We still pray.  
Every. Day.  
Without ceasing.  
We read Bible stories.  
We sing Jesus songs.
We do Jesus stuff.
This nativity thing sure takes up a lot of space on the table.
And people are gonna talk when they see it out still in June...

 

OK.   That's it.  It's going up.

 

But by this time it was nap time.  

 

Good.  

This will be much easier once she's asleep.

 

“Alright Ellie, it's time to take a nap."

 

Ellie ran.   Like lightening.

 

(Typical) 

 

Straight to the nativity. 

 

(Wait... What?)

 

She climbed up the chair, onto the table,  and pulled Jesus to her.  

 

"Night night, Jesus.“ 

She grabbed Him up along with His manger,  carried them both to her crib, and tossed them in.  Precious! 

I grinned, but didn't think much about it.

 

She was ready for nap time with Jesus. 

I picked her up and started to sing to her.

 

"No,  mama!" 

 

"What?" I put her down. 

 

She pulled Jesus out of the crib and ran again. 

 

Back to the nativity.

She picked up the angel.

 

"What's that?" she asked.

 

"An angel."

 

Immediately she set the angel down next to Jesus.
In front of Joseph. 
In front of Mary. 
As close to Jesus as she could put her.

 

"Here Jesus.  Night night."

She patted Him on the back, climbed down, and ran back to her crib.
Ready for nap time.

 

I thought a lot about that.  
I actually almost cried.  

 

When I put Ellie to bed I usually tell her she should go to sleep so she can talk to the angels. 

 

She's never responded. 

I didnt know she was listening, and I definitely didn't think she'd understand. 

 

Guess she showed me.  

And so did God. 

 

He worked through her to talk to me. 

 

I needed it.

 

The nativity is staying out. 
She gets it. 

She gets angels. 
She gets Jesus.  She gets God.  She's two.  
And she gets it.

 

Time to stop questioning myself so much. 

I'm not doing everything right, but somebody's doing something right. 

 

Point taken, God.  

There's plenty of room on our table for You.  

Thanks for shutting me up. 

I needed that today.

 

 

I know, I know. 

She's got her back to Jesus. 

But she's close enough that she can hear Him.

Besides...

 Maybe she's looking over Mama instead of Jesus because she needs it more ;)

 

Not just a puddle.

Walking down the hall tonight taking Ellie to bed, I stepped in a puddle.  In my head I cussed the dogs, but just kept on walking so I wouldn't distract Ellie from bedtime. 

 

Unusual for her, she was fighting it tonight,

so I was on a mission and didn't have the patience to be sidetracked. 

After the back and forth of

'rock chair, go bed, rock chair, sing song, go bed, rock chair',

she was asleep, so I came back to the puddle.  

It was an odd puddle as it was dribbled and spread all the way down the hallway. 

 

Awesome.  

Thanks dogs!   

 

I started wiping it up only to notice that it also spread to the top of a chair and then to the top of the table where our nativity sits.  

 

Thank goodness.  

 

Obviously this was not a dog puddle and could be nothing more than a spilled cup of water. Ellie must've taken my water cup and dribbled it down the hallway, up the chair, and onto the table.  

 

But where was my cup? Back on the table, right side up. Empty, but there. 

Weird. Oh well. Guess she put it back. 

 

Went into the bathroom. Ellie's potty had been taken apart and the bowl was upside down with dribbles of liquid in it.  

 

Oh. My. Goodness.

 

That wasn't a dog puddle.  
It wasn't a water puddle.

It was an Ellie puddle.  

From the bowl. 

Of her potty.

THAT SHE USED.

Without help.

 

She was just trying to drag the potty bowl into the kitchen to show her Mama

who was too busy cooking dinner to notice.

 

Who else could she show? 

Jesus. 

 

I've always told her if she can't talk to mama or daddy, she could talk to Jesus. 

 

So, there she went... 

down the hall, up the chair, to the nativity to show (and spill)

exactly what she'd done to Jesus.

 

And then she attempted to put the bowl back like a good girl. 

 

And then she ran to the kitchen asking for a sucker...

Her reward for going potty...

 

But I was too busy cooking to realize it and thought she just wanted a sucker. 

 

Stupid May. 

 

How did I not connect the dots before now?? 

 

No wonder the kid fought bedtime tonight. I would have too. 

 

Now to go wake her up and give her that dang sucker... And then to go lysol Jesus.

(just kidding on the waking her up part... but she will be getting a sucker for breakfast)

Hallelujah! We found Jesus!

Well, I'm proud to announce our household has finally found Jesus!  

 

We'd been told 'Jesus is everywhere', 

but after searching everywhere for 3 days, we had our doubts. 

 

Luckily, faith was restored! 

 

Made a deal with Ellie...

She could have her paci before bedtime if she told us where she hid baby Jesus...

So she took us right to him.  

 

He was right where he's supposed to be.  

 

In her baby cradle. 

 

Why lay in a manger with hay when you have a cradle with blankets? 

 

Duh, May! 

 

He's now had a bedtime bottle, was rocked and sung 'Jesus loves me'

(seriously I can't make this stuff up), 

and is sleeping soundly in his cradle next to Ellie's crib. 

 

Love that child... 

Errr.. Those children. 

Both Ellie and baby Jesus.

In the beginning...

Meet Ellie. 

She's beautiful, right? 

Thanks.  We think so too.

 

 

Meet her parents.  We kindly call them May. 

"May?" you ask.

Yes, May.

Why?

Because at any given time their patience, brains, wit,

and/or parenting skills may or may not be there.

Well... that... and

 

 

And last, but most definitely not least, this is Jesus. 

 

He's probably much like the one you know, but in our house,

in addition to being everywhere, He also sits atop our sofa table.

 

Ellie is two.  Barely.  Her birthday was a short day ago.  

She's been praying since she was born, and has known Jesus since before then,

but, just after Thanksgiving, she developed a close friendship with Him. 

 

It started with May setting up the nativity for Christmas. 

May instructed Ellie not to touch this nativity. 

She was even given her very own toy nativity to play with. 

The one you see in that picture was not hers. 

 

Well... if you're a parent... you know what happened there. 

 

If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans.

 

That nativity in the picture?  It's hers now. 

Took May about 2 days to give up and give in to that. 

 

If you've ever heard yourself when you've uttered the words,

"No, don't touch Jesus. You can't play with Jesus," 

you understand.

 

If the nativity breaks, it breaks. 

But in our house, Jesus isn't going to be hands off. 

 

For the past two years at bedtime, Ellie and May have talked to Jesus together. 

I cannot begin to grasp the confusion this creates for an all too logical child.  

 

"Who Jesus?  Where Jesus?"  

"He's everywhere, Ellie.  Always."  May assured her. 

 

Until Christmas.  When he appeared on the sofa table.   

 

FINALLY!

 

Ellie could see Jesus whenever she wanted.

Jesus made sense.  To a two year old.

And so began our adventures...

 

Our Christmas story (stories)...

 

Our decision to leave the nativity out year round. 

 

If it'll help our two year old develop a relationship with Jesus, 

maybe it's a good idea. 

Only time will tell...

 

Until then... join us in our adventures. 

The Adventures of Ellie, May, and Jesus.