At church on Saturday, we watched a video and the man had long hair and a bread. Jeremy commented on how he looked like "Jesus". I explained to him that in all likelihood, Jesus did not have long hair. You should have seen Jeremy's face. He immediately asked "Well then why does every picture I see of him show him with long hair." I told him it was a very good question and encouraged him to ask Mr. Mauldin (who was doing final comments. So he raised him hand and asked. Mr. Mauldin (and everyone else too) all helped him understand how that so many people believe that because he was born in Nazareth does not mean he had taken a Nazarite vow. We even went to Numbers 6. It reads:
| 1 | And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, |
| 2 | Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD; |
| 3 | he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. |
| 4 | All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. |
| 5 | ¶ All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. |
| 6 | ¶ All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body. |
| 7 | He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration* of his God is upon his head. |
| 8 | All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD. |
| 9 | ¶ And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it. |
If Jesus was under the Nazarite vow, He would not have been able to do all the things He did simply because of the vow that has to be taken. He would not have been able to take the little girls dead hand and tell her to rise, He would not have been drinking or handling wine, He would not have been able to Raise Lazarus. The list could go on. He also did not stand out in a crowd, otherwise how would he have been able to escape in the crowd from those looking for him.
Jeremy understood and it was great to be able to review that with him.
Then today, just driving home from shopping, he starting asking what I thought it would be like when we lived with Jesus. Would there be any fun things to do. I told him yes there would be plenty and we started talking about all the cool things we could do. He wanted to know if he would be able to play ball. I told him I did not see why not.
He also said he thought it was so strange to think that God never had a beginning. Because everything he knows has a beginning. He wanted to know how God could not have a beginning. I told him we are not meant to understand the why on everything right now, but someday we will.
Then he asked me about why some of his friends get baptized when they are only 8 or 9 when we tell him it is something he needs to do as a adult. He goes to SDA camp and they baptized many of the kids there at camp. So we just started talking about how wonderful and serious it is to be baptized and to vow to God you will follow him above all things. How as a child he needs to love God and learn his word, but in order to truly follow God, he (Jeremy) had to understand what God expected of him. He had to make the choice, not because he friends were doing it, not because he was 8 or 9, not because his parents expected him to, but because God was calling him and leading him. We also talked about how there is a time for everything and learning is just as important and he has to learn first. It really felt like the spirit was there with us and the conversation was so wonderful. And in that moment I had a great why to make it so simple for him to understand (thank you God!). I told him that Jesus Christ was not baptized until he was 30 years old and wasn't he the most prepared to follow our Heavenly Father. Even at 12 years old at the Temple doing his Fathers work. So if anyone asks him about being baptized or committing himself to God (which I don't feel needs to be proclaimed to everyone) simply tell them about how old Jesus was and that he wanted to wait to understand completely what God expected of him. It was a very powerful moment and Jeremy really got it.
I am so happy that we have these conversations.
