His Middle Name Is Paul
On our last night in Iowa with the Hansons, we were having devotions together before bedtime and remembering the days before Christ’s death on the cross. As Harrison finished reading about what happened on the day before Good Friday, he closed the Bible and Athanasius could be heard saying quietly, but clearly, “And maybe they cut off his private part.”
I could tell Harrison was at a loss for words, wondering if he heard the Scooter correctly, and sort of just tried to move our families into a time of prayer. The next morning Sonja asked me if I heard what Athanasius said the night before. I knew what he said and why he said it.
You see just a few days before, the kids and I were reading from Galatians, where Paul is addressing a problem in the church of Galatia. Even though the believers there came to Christ through faith, they were being misled to continue through works of the law, mainly because of troublers that were encouraging them to be circumcised. Paul writes to tell them that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. And then he throws out this gem about the troublers who are misleading them:
I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves. (Galatians 5:12)
So, I did my best to answer the kids’ question, “Papa, what is emasculate?” and thus the reason for Athanasius’ odd comment. Thanks Paul.
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Funniest comment EVER!! Thanks for getting my morning going with a scream! The explanation is great. More evidence that he is grasping at least some of what he’s hearing!
PTL–right?!