Say what?

Look closely in the middle of this admittedly bad picture (taken with my phone from the back row of our church's fellowship room) and you'll be able to see AJ, a.k.a. Peter, in an impromptu presentation of the Transfiguration.

Sunday was family day at our church. Sure would have been nice if I'd remembered that ahead of time. The other half of my family stayed home, where I'd planned to return as soon as I'd dropped AJ off at Sunday School. We had a lot of cleaning to do to get ready for AJ's birthday party.

Instead, I think God chose to remind me of how I should be spending my Sunday. So instead I stayed with AJ, who quickly raised his hand when the pastor asked for volunteers. I think it's safe to say AJ learned nothing from the story. I think he was jealous that he didn't get to be a cloud, like Rachel from his soccer team (the girl in red whose job was to walk in circles around the small group as they gathered on the mountain top.)

It was hard to concentrate on the rest of the Sunday School experience because I got distracted after taking a look at our church bulletin. I was the "reader" for the church service immediately following, and so I wanted to at least scan the two bible passages I was going to be reading. I usually try to do this just to make sure there aren't any names I don't know how to pronounce. Oh my goodness!!! Check out Deuteronomy 34: 1-12. If God had a message for me here, I'd say he was telling me he doesn't like me very much. This was a passage packed with every obscure geographic name you can imagine. Mount Nebo, Negev, Pisgah and Beth Peor, just to name a few.

I told AJ I needed to find the pastor because I didn't know how to say some of the words. AJ helpfully suggested an alternative. "Why don't you just say my line?"

"Your line from the Christmas program?" I asked.

"Yeah," he answered before launching into it, "In baptism, Jesus comes to us..."