seeing Jesus...

So here is the funny story I told you was coming. Nathan was playing outside the other evening after we got back from going out to dinner. I was sitting on the swing on our front porch talking to Liz (of course) while watching Nathan run around. It was already dark outside but the weather was perfect so we stayed longer than usual. As I'm talking, Nathan comes running from around the back of the house all the way up the porch and although very winded, begins to ask me a question. "Momma, what does it mean if you see Jesus, but you can't see his face? Does that mean that you are special?" I am stunned at his question a little cause, I mean let's get real here, he's 7! I asked him why he was asking and he begins to tell me that Jesus is in our back yard! His face is serious, and he is excitedly looking back behind him the entire time he is telling me this. It's as if at any minute Jesus is going to round the corner. I gave a nervous laugh and said something dumb like "really?", as I too start checking over his shoulder. lol! He says, "yeah,  I don't think it's God, because you cant see God's face and I can see his face so it must be Jesus. Besides, I can see his big brown beard and white gown and he's wearing that blue scarf that he loves to wear." WOW! Is this stuff really coming out of my SEVEN year old right now? "Do you think that means I'm special?", he asks. I say, "Oh, Nathan, I've always known you're special!" He smiles really big and turns and runs back around the house heading toward the "Jesus visitor" in the back yard. I go back to my phone call thinking what an amazing imagination he has mixed with some deep spiritual stuff there! He continues to run up to me several times making comments about our "visitor" to which  I smile and say something nonchalant like, "Wow, that's cool." You know what tone I'm talking about, it's the ' I'm going to respond to what you said, but I'm on the phone so I'm not really getting into a conversation with you right now' tone. After the third trip up to me with the same story, I ask Liz to hold on so that I can dig deeper into this phenomenon. "Okay Nathan, tell me again what is going on."  "Jesus is meditating on a tree stump in our back yard!" Now this I have to see! He begs me to follow him so I can see for myself, which didn't really require begging cause honestly, who wouldn't get up to go see this! I round the corner and look, but see nothing. I turn to Nathan to explain that I don't see anything, but stop because of the look on his face. He is starring out at the tree line behind our house with this amazed look of awe on his face mixed with pure joy and a little bit of 'can you believe this is happening'. I turn back to take one more really hard look, thinking I must have missed it cause this kid is in pure wonder at something. Alas, my eyes revealed nothing. Nathan looks away to check out my expression to see if I am equally in awe. He gets a confused look on his face and asks very simply, "can't you see him?" When I tell him no, he looks back at the treeline and says, "Well, that's too bad, because I can."
I go back to my swing and phone call to relax and share this amazing story with Liz. A few minutes later Nathan comes around the corner at warp speed with this excited yet terrified look on his face. I jump up and say "What?!! What's going on?" to which he responds, "Jesus started walking toward me!!" I said, " Well, maybe he has something to tell you." Then I tell Nathan to come on and lets go ahead and go in, cuz to be honest this is all really starting to creep me out. He stops dead in his tracks, looks up at me, and says, " ARE YOU CRAZY?! I'm not going anywhere until I find out what He needs to tell me!", and off around the corner he disappeared again.
No divine proclamations were given to Nathan that night, but a few days later, I heard Nathan talking to his cousin on the phone. He was telling him all about seeing Jesus meditating on a tree stump in our back yard. My nephew asked him if anyone else was with him and without skipping a beat, Nathan replied, yeah, Adam and Eve were standing right beside him, but they didn't say anything. WOW!!

Nathan in that "famous" tree line