Gabriel was looking at a book of artwork (Le Mauritshuis) at our home. A few pages later, he came upon an image of Christ crucified. He stared at it, then slowly traced it with his finger. He looked up at me and asked, “Who is this? Is he dead?” I said, “It is a painting of Jesus. Yes, he was dead. Do you know who that is?” he shook his head no. I sighed, “Well, Gabriel, to hear about Jesus this way is not the easiest place to learn about him, but here it goes: Jesus was a man who was killed because certain people did not like what he talked about and who he said he was.”
“What did he talk about?”
“Oh, things about being a nice person, about being kind to one another, about sharing what you have…” Before I could finish, Gabriel stopped me,
“He was killed because he was nice?”
“Yes, crazy, isn’t it? And because he said he was God too.”
“Well, if he was God, why did he die?”
“That’s a good question. Because he wanted to show us that love doesn’t die, he was resurrected and came back alive.”
“Vavie, when you are dead, you are dead. You don’t open your eyes, and you do not live anymore.”
“Yeah, you’re right about that. But, Jesus was different.”
“I don’t get it.”
“It is hard to grasp.”
Gabriel looked at the picture of the crucified Christ. And since he had to go to school, I told him we could talk about it more another day. He closed the book with a mind full of questions.
I tried to keep it simple and not go into a full-blown dialogue about symbolism, history, and religion. I was talking to a five-year-old and didn’t want to make him cry before school started.
How would you have answered Gabriel’s questions?
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