Mamaw. Superhero.

My pastor is a clever guy.  He likes to use word-picture associations that you can take-away from the sermon and remember later on.  At Easter time, he put the most horrific picture of a possum up on the big screen.  The reason: possums won't enter a lair if there aren't tracks coming out.  A single set of tracks leading into a lair means death could be waiting for them.  He tied it in beautifully with the fact that there were tracks coming out of the Grave on the morning Jesus rose.  He said it much better than I can.

Well, this weekend, I had to explain to Isaac that his Mamaw has cancer. 

And I was so afraid.

I remember back around 1980, when my favorite aunt was battling leukemia, I was so scared.  Not because I understood cancer, but because there was a lot of whispering going on.  About bones and marrow drives and donors and matches.  Whispers about her hair falling out and that really scared me.  I wanted Isaac to know right up front what was going on.  He's a smart kid and I knew he'd put 2 and 2 together and figure something was amiss.   But I was afraid to tell him.  After having just lost his Grandma to cancer, I was worried about scaring him.  So I tried the word-picture association, in terms I knew he'd appreciate: Lego Hero Factory, Heroes and Villains. 

              

This is Mamaw, Easter 2009.  



Mamaw has a villain growing in her chest.  He's a nasty fella.  Ugly, mean, but very small.  He's gotta go, but he won't go without a fight.  Typical villain. 

Lego Villain

Tomorrow Mamaw goes to the hospital and a Hero-Doctor is going to take that villain out because that's what Heroes do.  Mamaw will be taking medicine to make sure that villain won't come back, and she may be tired for a while.  Isaac said he could help.  He could make her a bologna sandwich for lunch.    

 

Lego Hero

After we talked about Lego Hero Factory toys and how awesome they are, we talked about Jesus when he was in the boat with the Apostles and a huge storm blew up.  And how afraid all the Apostles were.  And how big that storm was.  And all Jesus had to say was "Quiet" and it stopped.  That storm was WAY bigger than cancer and Jesus stopped it, no problem. 

"Yeah," Isaac said, "because Jesus controls everything."