DUIN: ‘The end’ not part of kids’ faith tales

Thursday being the feast of the Ascension, marking Jesus’ ascent into heaven, I thought it appropriate to describe the paucity of literature about this event.

Rare exceptions include “Kingdom Come,” the final book of the “Left Behind” series, which details life after the Second Coming, and Lisa Miller’s “Heaven,” which describes how various religions view the place. But those books are for adults.

One night as I was putting my daughter to bed, she glimpsed a stunning print on her bedroom wall of Jesus Christ returning to Earth on a white horse. It’s by Pat Marvenko Smith, a Pittsburgh artist who’s done the coolest art on the book of Revelation. I really liked her depiction of the red-robed, golden-sashed King of Kings with “eyes as flame of fire.” My little one was likewise entranced.

“When is He coming back?” she asked.

“Soon,” I said.

“Can I give Him a hug?” she asked.

“I’m sure He’d like that.”

“It will be Aslan and Jesus, right?”

“Yes, sweetie.”

Aslan, the Christ-like hero of C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is the closest my daughter can imagine to the Messiah. We were reading aloud portions from the book just before bed, but that night, she was so excited about the Second Coming that she wanted to talk about just that.

She asked who else was going to be there besides angels.

I named various uncles, grandparents, aunts, cousins and friends, which to her sounded like a nice party. She plied me with questions about what heaven looks like and what people do there until I finally dug out a children’s book about St. George and the dragon with a powerful drawing of an enormous mountain stretching 20 miles into the sky.

That, I explained, pointing to the enormous city on the peak of the mountain, is what heaven will be like. I dug around in my other books and realized that for all the Bible tales I have, none is about the end of time. They’re all folksy stories about Adam and Eve, then switching to Noah’s Ark and Daniel and the lions, then lots and lots about the Nativity and Jesus’ miracles, a bit about His death and then not a whole lot after that.

A lot of kids’ books don’t even show Jesus’ post-Resurrection face, and only one describes the work of the apostles, with a brief mention of the end of the world.

I realized this was an enormous teaching moment, so I sat up late with my 5-year-old explaining about Jesus coming back and angels (saving for later a talk about the devil and 666). There needs to be books showing inviting depictions of the celestial place. I did an Internet search, and what’s out there are books for kids dealing with the loss ofa family member or pet. Or heaven is described in vague nondenominational terms.

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