Tonight after I’d tucked Jonathan and Nicolas into bed (they share a room) I went back in to quickly drop off a toy or something and came upon a most interesting scene.
The room was dark as it should be, but Jonathan was sitting up in bed talking; actually as I was soon to learn, he was telling a story, which his little brother (also sitting up in his bed) was listening to with rapt attention. Arranged in front of Jonathan were various Webkins and stuffed animals who normally occupy his bed and he was moving one of the stuffed things while having it say, “I am a Hebrew. And I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.”
This made me stop my hasty exit from the room long enough to ask what in the world he was talking about. Surely this was no ordinary “stuffed animal bedtime story”.
“Oh, he’s telling me the story of Jonah, Mom.” Nicolas offered. Telling the story indeed; it sounded to me like my son was narrating the account verbatim from the text which I knew he had read to himself just the day before while we sat in church during the sermon. Very intrigued by this point I grabbed the nearest Bible I could find and stealthily planted myself just outside the room to listen. Jonathan was only in the first chapter of the Book of Jonah, so I figured this could take a while, and I certainly didn’t want to miss it.
For the next several minutes I skimmed over the story while listening to my little boy go over each part of all four chapters in amazingly accurate detail. Ok, so he left out most of Jonah’s prayer from inside the belly of the fish, as well as the three verse decree to the people of Ninevah in the third chapter, but he did all of the first and fourth chapters in a verse by verse paraphrase, using much of the original Biblical language. Near the end of the book he did get mixed up, and knowing I was listening nearby called out, “Hey Mom – what is it again God said to Jonah there?”
I read verse 8 of the fourth chapter and he answered, “No, that’s not quite right. Are you reading from the New King James Version? You should be on page 624 in that Bible.”
At which point I almost dropped my teeth out of my mouth. He even knew the page number that verse was on. Oh how very,very freaky. But I calmly opened his red NKJV Bible and turned obediently to page 624 and read verse 8 again. This time with the proper wording apparently, because he thanked me and happily went on and finished his bedtime story for Nicolas.
Which begs the question: how many little boys have a seven year old brother who at bedtime will narrate an entire book of the Bible to them like that after reading it the day before in church? I am overwhelmingly astounded at this. I don’t even have a proper, tidy ending for this blog entry because I am just too astounded. All I can say is “Wow!”
Well, Tricia, I certainly echo your ‘wow’! Jonathan is one amazing little boy!
Wow indeed.
(this is where Jay steps in to point out that “beg the question” doesn’t really mean that)
I don’t think I ever did that for Andrew. Sorry about that, bro; if you want, I can do some Ezekiel for you next time around.
Believe me, Peter, I was tempted! But language is a moving target, and that particular one is moving fast. I let it go about 4 years ago on “begs the question” meaning “begs to ask the question” instead of its original meaning of assuming the conclusion as a premise in a syllogism (i.e. a circular argument).
Jay,
You sure do talk fancy.
As long as the word “bling” doesn’t appear here anytime soon, I think I can make my peace with language as a dynamic construct.
Jonathan has once again given me a great story to tell my friends; that boy is a-MAZ-ing.
Peter, I was just telling Jamison about a time when we were kids and you were telling me what it meant to take the Lord’s name in vain. You were, I think, afraid to actually verbalize the phrase so you instead chose to change the possessive pronoun: “It’s like when you say ‘oh your God'”.
At the time I faked knowing what the heck you were talking about, but to this day I appreciate you taking the time to explain it to me.
wow. what a great post.
found you through Missy. nice blog.