Bible Stories with Cosi

"Grabbing Coins!"

That's how Cosi requests that we (again) tell her the story of the Good Samaritan. I really wish we could have filmed the first time she heard this story. After our success with the story of the Ten Shushus with Boo-boos, April suggested I tell another boo-boo story. About halfway through the parable of the Good Samaritan, Cosi started getting tears in her eyes. She was so concerned for this poor man that was bleeding and alone. She started asking if she could help. Then she started saying all the things she could do for him- rub his belly, feed him prunes (Trey was eating prunes at the time), rub his hair, give him chocolate, sing to him- basically anything that communicates love to Cosi. And so as she teared up, so did her mommy and daddy, who had never seen this compassionate side of her before. We joked that Cosi made the Good Samaritan look like a slacker. (Is that heresy?)

Well, it's been about a month and we tell the story at least 3-4 times a day. Cosi still interjects herself into the story, usually as the Good Samaritan. Sometimes, though, she comes in at the beginning and holds the man's hand while he walks on the road so that he's not alone when he gets attacked. Here's a little video of how the story usually goes, although we had a surprise ending this time- Cosi brought Jesus into the story for the first time!

Ten Shu-shus with Boo-Boos

"I have come to the conviction that if you cannot translate your thoughts into uneducated language, then your thoughts were confused."
-C.S. Lewis

Here is the story of Jesus and the ten lepers- the version we tell Cosi, who is somewhat obsessed with blood and injuries. We're trying to tell Bible stories using words she's familiar with and in concepts that are accessible to her:

There were 10 shu-shus ("shu-shu," remember, is 'uncle', how East Asian kids address men) with boo-boos. They had boo-boos all over their bodies, very bad boo-boos, maybe some of them were bleeding. They were very sad. They came to Jesus and said "Jesus, please help!" And Jesus said "Sure!" So he made their boo-boos all better and they were happy. But one shu-shu came back to Jesus and said, "Thank you, Jesus." He had a thankful, happy heart.