Penny leading her friends at school in "freeze dance"

As those of you with young children already know, last week was Dr. Seuss' birthday. Penny's teachers celebrated by inviting all the parents in her class to sign up to read. I was slated for Thursday and Horton Hatches an Egg.

William soon picked up on this development, so he asked if I could come to his class the same day. I arranged it with his teacher. On the designated morning, I asked William to select a book. He raced into the playroom. When he returned, he lay a book on the table and said, "Mom. I picked the Jesus book. Because I don't think my friends have learned about Jesus yet."

It was such a simple statement. He wasn't talking about wanting his friends to convert to Christianity. He certainly wasn't thinking about evangelism or sin and salvation. He just wanted to share some stories about this person named Jesus who he is getting to know.

I told him we couldn't bring the book about Jesus. I didn't want to put his teachers in an awkward position. I didn't know how to explain why. He decided on The Cranky Sun without much protest.

But I walked away with hope that he will hold on to that sincere and unadulterated desire that his friends learn about Jesus. Just like he wants to tell them about getting a mini trampoline for Christmas and how he got to visit his Nana and Pop Pop for the weekend and how he likes to eat mini carrots for a snack in the morning. I hope he'll hold on to it, and I hope I'll hold on to it too. And I hope I will tell my friends about Jesus not because I'm trying to change them or fulfill some sense of Christian responsibility. I hope I will tell them because maybe they haven't learned about him yet. Maybe they don't know him. And maybe if I do tell, they will feel the way I feel, the way I think William feels, that the stories about Jesus are mysterious and powerful. That Jesus is a person worth getting to know.