Make a Splash With Jesus!

I am going to preface this post by telling you that I am a Christian, and I have the utmost respect for religion, and I myself go to church as often as I don't. (If Ainsley sleeps late on a Sunday morning, believe me, God will hear many praises coming from my lips; we don't need to go to church those mornings for that to happen.) But I also think God has a sense of humor, and I think He is probably chuckling over this, too.

Ainsley is in our church's Vacation Bible School a few hours every morning this week. The theme this year in our diocese is...Make a Splash With Jesus! Oh, yeah!

When I first saw this theme spelled out on another church's marquee, I got the giggles. Actually, they wrote it out as "Water Adventures with Jesus!", which is even funnier. It conjures the image of the "Buddy Christ" from the movie Dogma, one of my favorites. In the movie, a priest (played by George Carlin, no less) unveils a new image for a modern catholic church, a statue of the "Buddy Christ", a Christ winking and pointing at you as if to say, "Who's your pal?" This is the Jesus I see when I see all our church's banners with the "Make a Splash With Jesus!" logo; I picture Kevin Smith's Buddy Christ, plus swim trunks, ready to take on the now-defunct Jim-and-Tammy-Faye Christian-themed water park. Good news, indeed.

While learning about God this week, Ainsley will also be playing with water, tie-dying a swim-suit coverup, and making her way down a donated slip-and-slide. And I hear the kids will all be singing some water-themed bible songs at the closing event Friday morning. I heard them practicing that "The Lord...told Noah...to build him...an arky-arky" song today when I picked her up. I can hardly wait to see how they're going to tie all this together. I just hope they don't water down the curriculum too much. Har!

Oh, stop. The sun's still shining. Lightning hasn't struck me yet for my snarkiness. And believe me, I've been snarkier about religion and its sometimes absurdity. I know, I know. They're just trying to make it appealing to kids, and the kids need to have fun while they learn about God. Otherwise, no one would come and I wouldn't have a fun place for Ainsley to be while I wrap up Relay stuff this week. It just makes me laugh, that's all.

Gotta run. I have to make sure Ainsley has a swim suit clean for tomorrow's water adventures (with Jesus.)

Also, I think I hear a distant rumbling of thunder.