Jesus On the Cross (by Timo)

Timo asked me about a picture I did yesterday, of Jesus on the cross and the two rebels on either side of him. I quickly hid the picture from him at the time yesterday because I didn't want to tell him about the painfulness of that... I told him I'd explain it later.

So today while drawing Ultraman characters, he asked again (and I prayed quietly) and explained that Jesus died on the cross, but He came back later. It hurt a lot, and He was taking the punishment for all of us. He asked who the other two people on crosses were, and I said they were some bad guys who were being punished, but one of them saw Jesus and said that He didn't do anything bad, and he changed his mind and became good. It helped that in an Ultraman Zero episode Timo watched, one hero named Mirror Knight had been turned into a bad guy, but Ultraman Zero held him and changed him back into a good guy... that's what Jesus does for us! That's what He did for us by dying on the cross! (Never thought Ultraman would help teach my son the gospel!)

Timo paused, puzzled, and asked how Jesus stayed on the cross. I paused, too, before deciding to just tell him about the nails. It hurt a lot. And actually, Jesus is God, and so He's strong, stronger than any Ultraman or anything. So He didn't have to stay there on the cross, but He loved us so much that He wanted to take our punishment for us. So He stayed there, died and came back. (Of course Timo asked other practical questions like, "How did He get off the cross after that?") I told him that when we see scars on hands we think "Ouch!" and the pain, but when Jesus sees the scars on His hands He thinks of us and loves us! So I ran to go show him one of my pictures with the hearts on Jesus' hands, but Timo beat me to it and said, "That's why He has the hearts on His hand."

I asked him why he put the blue on Jesus in the middle. He said he didn't know, haha. Just because the blue was there. I told him that sometimes we talk about Jesus' love like water... but maybe that was too deep for today.