The Consequences of No Religion

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Grandson had presumably been to a Christmas Eve service and so associated Jesus with baby Jesus in the manger, etc., and from there, other babies?
 
No, no, no. Grandson is wise and saw the baby Jesus in the face of a crying, dripping infant. Must have been that way.
 
Seeler said:
Wisdom is not synonymous with formal education.
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While not everyone is agreeing with your example, I certainly think this holds true. My neighbour, a rather folksy retired farmer and contractor, shows far more wisdom (as in understanding how to live) than some of the highly educated folks (PhDs for the most part) that my wife works with. You can stuff your brain with knowledge and ideas but that doesn't mean you have a lick of sense about how to use that education to make the world better, relate to other people, and so on.
 
Seeler said:
My grandson showed more wisdom most adults present when he whispered to me that he saw Jesus in a baby being baptised; and he was a pre-schooler at the time.
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I suspect that the negative reaction above has a lot to do with the use of the word "Jesus" here. To me, seeing "Jesus" in the face of a newborn is not necessarily a literal thing, but a recognition of the importance of new life. With new life comes new hope and a new chance for a better life and world. Yes, perhaps grandson was responding to what he had heard and seen of the faith already, but perhaps he also had the wisdom to relate that to the sense that there is something special about birth and new life. Certainly, when I was holding Little M for the first time when he was only a few minutes old, the notion of God born in a human form (ie. Christmas) was the image that I carried and I was pretty much well past my Christian days by then. It is is a powerful image and even agnostic pantheist UUs can relate to it, though we may understand it differently. In the words of Sophia Lyons Fahs, a UU writer and educator:

For so the children come and so they have been coming.
Always the same way they come, born of the seed of a man and a woman.
No angels herald their beginnings.
No prophets predict their future courses.
No wise men see a star to show where to find the babe that will save humankind.
Yet each night a child is born is a holy night.
Sitting beside our children’s cribs, we feel glory in the sight of new life beginning.
We ask “Where and how will this new life end? Or will it ever end?”
Each night a child is born is a holy night.
A time for singing, a time for wondering, a time for worshiping.
 
Mendalla said:

For so the children come and so they have been coming.
Always the same way they come, born of the seed of a man and a woman.
No angels herald their beginnings.
No prophets predict their future courses.
No wise men see a star to show where to find the babe that will save humankind.
Yet each night a child is born is a holy night.
Sitting beside our children’s cribs, we feel glory in the sight of new life beginning.
We ask “Where and how will this new life end? Or will it ever end?”
Each night a child is born is a holy night.
A time for singing, a time for wondering, a time for worshiping.
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Beautiful!

I felt that way when my granddaughters were born. When my children were born, I was too caught up in the struggle for survival to feel such holy awe.
 
But the fact remains that if kids grow up without anyone mentioning Jesus, then they don't mention Jesus. If you take them to church, or Sunday School, or talk about God and Jesus at home, they are going to look for Jesus. They'll associate Jesus with church rituals. They'll believe before they even know what they are believing, and that's why it's important to get them to believe early. That's your window, because after that, I recall the most recent numbers are that for every young adult that takes up religion, 3 or 4 free themselves of religion.
 
I know that is the theory, but I don't know where my grandson would have heard this in order to repeat it.
It was a new idea to me, and as I said many people in the church first instinct would have been to correct his "misunderstanding".

Of course you know better than his family what he would have been taught or overheard.
 
3 years old, Christian grandmother, in church for a baptism.

Nah, he's never heard the name "Jesus" before.
 
chansen said:
3 years old, Christian grandmother, in church for a baptism.

Nah, he's never heard the name "Jesus" before.
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Perhaps a better question would be - which Jesus has he heard of? The Jesus of the evangelical conservatives? The Jesus of the justice-seeking liberals? The Jesus who is the Spirit-led suffering servant?
 
Seeler you should be proud. Nothing wrong with a three year old child knowing about Jesus. He showed alot of understanding IMHO.
 
chansen said:
3 years old, Christian grandmother, in church for a baptism.

Nah, he's never heard the name "Jesus" before.
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Of course he had heard the name Jesus before. Or, if he was born in another culture, he would probably have heard of Allah, or Buddah, or some other term for the Holy.
And if he had been born into a non-religious family, I am quite certain this child would have had the wisdom to see something special in this new-born baby and in the love that surrounded her. He is that type of boy.
 
Pr. Jae said:
Perhaps a better question would be - which Jesus has he heard of? The Jesus of the evangelical conservatives? The Jesus of the justice-seeking liberals? The Jesus who is the Spirit-led suffering servant?
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jae, I thought that there is only one God and that Jesus was God incarnate. Do you know another Jesus? Perhaps a Mexican ball player?
 
Waterfall said:
Seeler you should be proud. Nothing wrong with a three year old child knowing about Jesus. He showed alot of understanding IMHO.
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Thank you Waterfall. I am very proud of both of my grandchildren. My granddaughter is more of a 'thinker', like me and like my son (her uncle). She asks questions, reads a great variety of books (or finds information on the internet), and seeks answers. My grandson seems to be more intuitive and quite spiritual at times and shows insight that I would find quite remarkable regardless of his age.
 
Seeler said:
jae, I thought that there is only one God and that Jesus was God incarnate. Do you know another Jesus? Perhaps a Mexican ball player?
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Seeler - I believe there is only one true Jesus - the Spirit-led suffering servant. However - many people have created other versions of Jesus.
 
I'm not at all surprised that you limit Jesus to your definition.
It may surprise you to know that I also see Jesus, and I believe he saw himself, as a suffering-servant as envisioned by Isaiah.
 
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