That’s not the real Jesus
Today, I’m honored to feature my friend and fellow writer Laura Camby McCaskill as a guest-blogger on my Shining the Light blog. Read more about Laura and connect with her online, below.
By Laura Camby McCaskill, guest blogger
It was Easter Sunday, the play had just started, the lights were dimmed, and Cat had just settled in close to me to watch the play. Cat was around five or six at the time and wanted to come along with me to the Easter play, which made me happy to see she was interested in the story.
The play started out with the virgin-born birth of Jesus. Mary came riding in on a real donkey, and the inner child in me jumped for joy; I wanted to go pet it, but it was hardly the time. The play continued into Christ’s life, how he was baptized, about his apostles, the miracles he had done, and so on. I glanced down at Cat a few times to see her enthralled with the whole story.
Then Palm Sunday came, and Jesus rode in on yet another real donkey. Then came the betrayal and arrest of Jesus. The next time Jesus entered in, they had a life-sized cross, which he carried, and real whips that made an awful sound. I jumped at the sound. True, it startled me, but it also made me wince at the pain Christ must have felt. What he went through for us, to save us. I could only imagine what Cat was thinking.
Then Christ was crucified. The next scene was how they found the empty tomb, how Jesus wasn’t there. He had risen, just like he said he would. All in all, an excellent play.
The actors left to go to the back, while the pastor took the stage. He thanked everyone for coming, prayed with us, and invited us all to their gym to meet the actors and have refreshments. People were beginning to get up to leave. I looked down at Cat as she sat there in amazement of it all.
“Well, what did you think of the play?” I asked.
“It was good,” she replied, smiling up at me.
“Do you want to go to the gym to meet the characters?” I asked.
“Characters?” she asked, watching everyone leave.
“Yes,” I told her. “You could meet the man that played Jesus.”
I was sure that would be something she’d be interested in.
She almost gave herself whiplash, jerking her head back around to me; she seemed like she could hardly believe what I had said.
“That’s not the real Jesus!” she exclaimed.
I hid my smile.
“No, Cat, that’s just a man that played the part of Jesus.”
That experience is one I’ll hold dear to my heart. The innocence of a child is something very refreshing in this dark world. So, I leave you with these few verses about children: hold them close, keep them safe, and train them as they should go.
Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Matthew 18: 2-4, “And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them. And said, ‘Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”
Luke 18:16, “But Jesus called them unto him, and said, ‘Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.’”
Best known for her ghostly thriller Her Keepers, Laura Camby McCaskill has taken her love for writing and harnessed it to help others. In 2012, Laura published her first work Her Keepers, which won outstanding reviews. In 2016, she published her second work Fallow, a romance thriller which received equally stunning reviews. She is working on her third book. Learn more about Laura and read her blog at https://www.lauracambymccaskill.com/.
