CJ’s only Easter book finesses the issue of Jesus’s death. The book starts with 10 pages of cartoons about how much Jesus loved little children — and apparently little lambs and bunnies, too. Then there’s one page that says “But not everyone loved Jesus” with a slightly cloudy pastoral scene where you can barely see three tiny crosses on a far hilltop. And then on the very next page an angel is standing by the mouth of the cave, with good news!
But CJ’s church childcare, which she used to call The Pooh-Bear Room, doesn’t pull any punches.
“Do you know what happened to Jesus?” she asked me last Sunday after church. “He died.”
“Because he wasn’t in Noah’s Ark?” I asked, trying to connect the passion to one of the only other Bible stories she knows.