Going Green
We lay on her bed, under the patchwork quilt, just the two of us. Daughter and mom. Bible resting on daughter’s legs.
She begins, highlighter poised: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.” She colors each sentence as she reads, stumbling over words like “formless” and “hovering,” which she pronounces HOOVER-ing, like the vacuum.
“What’s the Spirit of God, Mommy?” she asks. “Is that the Holy Spirit?”
“Yes, Lydia,” I respond. “Isn’t that cool? The Holy Spirit was there, even in the beginning.”
She continues.
“Let there be light.”
“And God saw that it was good.”
“Let there be an expanse between the waters …”
“And God saw that it was good.”
Lydia’s pace quickens. Her green highlighter traces each line. She looks at me in awe: “Mommy! That’s just how you told us in Sunday School. It’s right here! In my Bible!”
“Yes, Lydia. This is the same story. Go on, honey. You’re doing great …”
She continues, reading of the land producing vegetation. She snickers when she gets to the part about animals moving along the ground. (She knows how her mom fears certain reptiles.) Even when God saw the snakes, she instructs me, He saw that they were good.
Her highlighting continues, so rapidly that the lines she draws become crooked.
We reach the end of the chapter. God has seen all that He has made and declared it “very good.”
The highlighter, I’ve told her before, is for her to use on the parts of the Bible she likes the most.
So she colored every word of Genesis, Chapter 1. The entire first chapter of Lydia’s NIV Adventure Bible — every word of it — has been colored in green.
She likes all of it the most.
God saw all that Lydia had done. And it was very good.
***
This is from the 2008 archives.
The correct translation is: "Elohim (that means God in Plural!!! – so Gods)created the heavens (Plural!)and the earth…
Greetings!
Barbara
Wonderful, Barbara, and thank you for stopping by and sharing your insights.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Isn't that something: Three in One.
Your daughter is a delight. I totally get it because my Bible has become so covered with writing and stuffed with notes that I don't even take it out of the prayer closet anymore, but use a different one for church. Sounds like your daughter's headed in the right direction. LOL!
Sounds like you're training your child in the way she should go! Psalm 119:9 -"How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word and following its rules." God bless.
How wonderful! What a great moment!
Hey, Jennifer! Love this precious story! She has a heart for highlighting just like me!Except, my higlighter is pink!!
Isn't it awesome how they make these connections? They can't believe that what they've been taught is ACTUALLY found in God's Word!! Thanks for sharing!!
And, I love Barbara's info for Elohim! Never knew that!!
Hugs!
Susan
This excited my spirit and warmed my heart, and I will be smiling for a long time…
This is one of my all time favorites of your posts, Jennifer — one of the very first I read.
Lydia proves what Jesus meant when He said we must come as children. She hasn't taught herself yet that only certain parts of His love letter to us are important, and she finds all of His words to be her favorite.
(Of course, I'd also dare her to spend some time in Judges with me and she might just feel like getting out her black highlighter as I have been tempted to do lately.)
I want to be like her — soaking in all of it, not just some of it.
Teach her to hang tightly onto that. (I know you will.)
Still love this post!
Still love this post!
Oh how awesome! Training my children in the Lord is a burden. I grew up with Christian parents, but there wasn't a real push back then to involve children directly in the word like this. What a great way to read the Bible with your child. I'm tucking that idea away in a folder I've started for when my children get a little older. As an avid highlighter myself, I stupidly never thought of letting kids do the same, probably because at the toddler stage, I'm constantly snatching mine out of their hands so my house isn't pink, green, and purple! Thanks so much for sharing this again.
Awww! Kids are the best, aren't they? They love the Lord with their whole heart- they will share Christ with anyone without apprehension.
One of my favorite recent conversations with my son is when I gave him his first "big boy" Bible (no pictures) and he excitedly turned through it and said, "oh mom, here's Genesis, oooh Exodus, Look mom- it's Moses." Then he turned to me and smiled, "I just LOVE the Lord!"
It can't get any better than that and green highlighters, can it?!
Love,
Kristen
Beautiful! What a blessing your Lydia is. 🙂
Children learn by example. They just don't get an idea to highlight their Bible without having seen in done. Guessing she's seen it modeled in her home. I've gotten out of the habit of reading the Bible to or with my kids. This posts makes me want to start again.
My daughter looked in horror when she saw how marked-up my Bible is. She thought God would be mad. When I explained that those marks help me remember things about God, she reached her for own highlighter.
She really likes exclamation points.
I loved this. I could just see mommy and Lydia sitting together with Bible on your laps. What a picture in the heart of all Jesus loving mommies.
🙂
Loved that she colored every word. Shows me much about a child's heart and faith.