What Happened to Jesus' Body?

This past week, the kids and I had the joy of participating in our church's Vacation Bible School program.  It's normally for kids in kindergarden through sixth grade, but if parents are volunteering at VBS, their preschool kids are able to attend classes too.  It was a long week but so worth it.  Our kids had fantastic teachers, and I had the wonderful opportunity to teach the Bible story to each of the preschool classes.  Here was our kids' class for the week.  They had so much fun!

The first two days of VBS, the Bible lesson had to do with God creating the world.  The last three days had to do with the gospel -- that all people sin against God and deserve His punishment, that Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment in our place, that Jesus rose from the dead, and that if we repent and trust in Him we can have forgiveness of our sins and live eternally with Him in heaven.  


On Friday, I used an illustration to help the kids think about Jesus rising from the dead.  I had a drawing of a man which I ripped up into pieces.  I said that this was similar to what sinful men did to Jesus -- they broke His body and killed Him.  I put the pieces into a paper bag and said we could pretend it was like people putting Jesus into a tomb.  I asked the kids if they thought I could put my hand in the bag and pull out the drawing of the man in one whole piece again.  They said no, of course, and we talked about how only God could bring someone to life from the dead and make them whole again.  Then we marveled that Jesus WAS raised back to life and that, even more amazing, He rose from the dead with a new, glorified body!


Then last night night during our family worship time, we were going over Baptist Catechism questions with the kids and decided to introduce a couple of new questions.  One of them was "Who is God?"  We went over the answer with them: "God is a Spirit, and does not have a body like men."  They repeated the phrase after us, and then our daughter surprised us with a question of her own.  "What happened to Jesus' body?"  I was momentarily speechless, thinking that she surely couldn't have meant what it sounded like she meant.  But as we talked with her about it, it became clear that she was truly asking us if the answer to the catechism question was correct.  Because Jesus is God and Jesus has a body.  


We talked with her about another catechism question they know, which explains that there is one God that exists in three persons -- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  And we talked about how Jesus is God the Son, who does have a glorified body even now.  She asked if they ripped His body, and made a ripping motion with her hands, just like I'd done in VBS as I illustrated His body being torn when He gave up His life for us!


This girl is paying attention.  And she's understanding more than I realized.  How very exciting!!