Milemarker~Joshua Zion is twelve years old

Josh #12; Jon #61

...which means I have been parenting for some 12 years, nine months...give or take a week.   Reading this post will require you to travel down memory lane with me and remembering some of my favorite Josh moments...to know him is to love him.

When Josh and Jon were in preschool they became consumed with acting out some of their favorite Bible stories.  They saw the children’s movie Prince of Egypt and were very inspired by the drama.  One afternoon I caught Josh playing in the yard with no shoes.  This irks me.  Either put on your shoes or take off your socks.  My preference, because we had dogs in the yard, was that he put on shoes.  I told him as much. 

“Josh, put your shoes on, please.”

“Mom, I can’t.  The Lord says I’m standing on Holy Ground.” 

This Easter outfit had a tie at one point.

Another afternoon, close to Easter, I went out to find all of their superheroes (Batman, Superman, Flash, Incredible Hulk) laying on the driveway.  I assumed there had been a nuclear disaster on some alien planet far, far away and went to investigate.  Upon closer inspection I realized that each hero was laying atop a little pile of sticks. 

“Josh, what are you doing?  Are they getting burned?”

It was then that the neighbor walked over.  He had been doing yard work and had come over to investigate the scene a little earlier.  “ They've been crucified,” he explained.

I looked again and realized it was true.  Each hero was carefully placed on two perpendicular sticks.  They had crucified their heroes. 

“What happens now?”  I really wanted to know.

“Now Jesus saves them.”

Jedi cowboys with swords

A few weeks later I caught the boys tying ropes around each other and leading each other through the yard.  I went to intervene.  I assumed they were playing cattle drive or something like that.  But we have a couple of non-negotiable rules in our home.  Rule number 5 is that we keep our promises…to each other, to our friends, to our baseball coach, to our teachers.  Rule number 4 is we use our words in kind ways and we don’t hit girls ever.  Rule number 3 is we take a polite bite of our food and we say thank you for food, even if we don’t like it.  Rule number 2 is we go to church on Sunday and we participate with the Holy Spirit.  Seem to hit most of them?  What could rule number one be?  Burris Family Rule #1 is (and I do not lie)  "no ropes around the neck."  This does not have a dramatic story to go with it, and it may seem to some to be a bit of an overkill (pardon the pun).  But it became obvious as boy number 2 became mobile only 14 months after boy number 1 there would have to be preventative measures taken if they both were going to make it to adulthood.  (You know, of course, that goal number one of parenting is keep them alive.)  So Burris Family Rule Number 1 (this is how we refer to it…regularly) is “no ropes around the neck.”  I realized on this afternoon I would have to expand the rule to no ropes around the waist and I was trying to decide if I would include no ropes around ankles and wrists and heads or just take the rope away (my sister says I could make fewer rules if I were less specific and more pro-active…she was very critical the day I said, “Please don’t cut your sister with the knife at the table.”  My sister doesn’t have kids yet).  Then I was close enough to hear their dialogue.

“Take him to the cross!”  Josh exclaimed this to an unseen guard.  Jon, with imaginary bindings on his wrists and a lowered head stumbled behind his big brother in pretend agony.  Josh then loosened the rope and mimicked nailing Jon’s hands and feet to an invisible cross.  After a moment Josh lowered the now relaxed body of his younger brother to the leafy ground and dragged him to the swing set.  Jon lay still for a moment then rose to his feet and walked toward Josh with his arms raised.

“Okay, Jon, my turn to be Jesus.”  And the re-enactment started over again with roles reversed.  I let them keep the rope.

The game was called “Take Him to the Cross” and they played for weeks.  My sister said they were getting too much church.

Josh is a warrior.  We named him Joshua Zion because we wanted to claim God’s promises for our future family that God would fight for us.  We did not have to be afraid, only believe.  We would choose, our whole household, to serve the Lord.  We believed that the Lord is Zion’s champion and we wanted “in” on the promise.  So our first little blond-haired, blue-eyed, Protestant, southern baby boy was named Joshua Zion.  He was born with a warrior’s heart.  It used to bother my mother that he was constantly fighting with sticks.  He never hit anyone, but he swung sticks like his life depended on it.  She bought sword after sword: plastic, Styrofoam, retractable, glow-in-the-dark, rubber.  It didn't matter.  Oh, he would swing those too.  But sticks worked well enough.  He is twelve now and still carries a stick.  We find sticks in our cars, bedrooms, tucked into corners, on the porch, under furniture…he stores the good sticks. Albert Einstein said,"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Josh will be ready.  He’s never been in a fight.  Well, okay, he has scrapped with his brother plenty and has had to put up with sister brawls.  But this warrior-child has never, ever lifted a hand against a friend or enemy…nor has he been hit by someone else (which says something of its own).  He talks to us a lot about the violence in the world.  He creates stories in which those who are violent are put down by warriors who don’t love violence, but use force to stop it.  He loves action/adventure movies: Star Wars, Pirates of Caribbean, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Marvel Comics, X-Men, GI Joe, Transformers, Chronicles of Narnia…he loves it.  He loves war stories.  He can discuss generals, battle plans, dates, and strategies from the Civil War, the Alamo, and World War II. He has a copy of the Preamble and the Declaration of Independence hanging in his room…next to the Marvel Comic poster.

 He recently was confronted with a situation that frightened him:  a new class.  Our family moved mid-year.  He had a new school, new home, new church, and now was expected by his preacher-mom to go to a new 5^th and 6^th grade Bible study.

 “No.”

 That was his final word.  “Punish me however.  I won’t go.”  Did I mention Josh is a stubborn warrior?  After several moments of frustration on my part, I decided to stop focusing on my needs in the situation and discover his.

 “Why Josh?  Why can’t you go in there?”

“I’m afraid.”

“I understand that.  I have been afraid, too, moving to this new place.  I think you’re doing a great job.  Hey, can you think of someone in the Bible who was brave?”  I figure Josh is going to pick Moses or Joshua or David…his favorite warriors.

“Jesus was brave.”

“Wow.  He really was brave.  Can you think of a story of when Jesus had to do something really hard or that he was afraid to do?”  I assume at this point we will talk about Jesus dying on the cross.

“I think it must have been really hard to let Lazarus die.  Jesus could have healed him, but he needed to let him die so the other people could see the miracle.  It really hurt Jesus’s feelings because he cried.  I think it took a lot of courage for Jesus to just let Lazarus die.”

Josh is a warrior serving the God-of-the-Angel-Armies.  He did not get punished for missing Bible study that night.  I don’t know if Josh was identifying more with Jesus or Lazarus that night.  The next week he found the courage to go in.