I recently picked up a novel called Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson. The story follows a group of kids at an all-African American elementary school in the 1970s. At the beginning of the story a white boy shows up. Purely for the color of his skin, he gets labeled (and permanently renamed) "Jesus Boy."
Throughout the rest of the novel, Frannie (the novel's main character) becomes friends with Jesus Boy and this prompts her to wonder who the real Jesus is. Her friend is a pastor's kid who thinks that Jesus Boy might actually be Jesus. Spoiler alert: she later finds out he isn't.
At one point in Feathers, Frannie asks herself what she would ask Jesus if He was right here. She decides that she would ask Him how to have hope.
Jacqueline Woodson and I would not agree on Jesus' true identity. That comes out later in the novel when Frannie wonders if Jesus is in all of us, if he is some sort of immaterial spirit of goodness, not even a real person.
But I still applaud Woodson.
Unlike many other middle-grade novels, she creates authentic kid characters who are exploring religion. The thing is, kids think about deep stuff too. But the Disney Channel, many kids books, and society as a whole seems to consider kids incapable of theological - or even seriously intellectual - thinking.
Don't underestimate your kids. Instead foster their love for truth. Don't laugh at their big questions; celebrate them.
All it takes is teaching a kids Sunday School class or just building relationships with kids. It won't take you long to find out that kids think about deep stuff too.
Photo Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons and Tatlana Vdb.