the Bible...as seen through the eyes of my children

We have been watching The Bible on the History channel.
We wanted to see how they are portraying scriptures.
They have taken some artistic license (ninja angels, anyone?)
but are sticking pretty close to the facts and our boys have found it to be riveting.
Blood. Weaponry. Pretty girls.
What more could they ask for?
And I know you are thinking,
"Hey, that stuff is not in the Bible!"
And I am telling you, yes, yes, it is in the Bible.
The Bible is violent and raw and offensive.
It doesn't matter how you dress it up, Noah and the ark is a horror story
for all the people not in the ark.
And Sarah is really mean to Hagar and Ishmael. Really mean.
And watching Abraham almost sacrifice Isaac produces such an odd mix
of emotions...terror, awe, disgust, gratitude. It's unnerving.
It has provided us with fodder for some really interesting discussions.
During one dancing scene taking place in Sodom, Jack looked at me and said,
"Hey, Mom! The Bible is super inappropriate."
Yep. It really is.
Then Addie crawled up to me during the part when Samson had
his eyes gouged out and said,
"Mom, you know, sometimes the Bible is really gory!"
"Yes, it is!" I agreed, closing my eyes and sticking my fingers in my ears.
"You might want to look away."
That part made me want to throw up a little.
Then last night as I was tucking Will into bed, he asked me,
"Mom, what is adultery?"
Thank you, David and Bathsheba.
So Will and I chatted about adultery for a while.
I took it as a teachable moment and admonished him,
"Will, that is something you don't ever want to do. It never ends well."
The thing about the Bible is that it is full of real people with real problems
who sin and make mistakes, who fall down and get back up and cry out to
God and triumph and become more than they ever could be on their own.
It makes you cheer on the ones who listen for God's voice.
Then it makes you realize that you should be listening for God's voice.
Inappropriateness and gore aside...I think we will keep watching.