Cain and Abel

The two boys and I were reading a children's bible story book tonight, and Hadrien focused on the Cain and Abel story. I think what caught his attention was the illustration: Cain as a bearded, large caveman-ish looking fellow, hitting Abel - pictured as a slight, gentle staff-wielding shepherd - with a club worthy of Cro-Magnon man.

He started out by pointing each to Cain and Abel, asking, "Who dat?" I then explained that Cain and Abel were fighting because Cain was jealous of Abel. Baz asked what happened to Cain after he struck Abel ("What happened after Cain hit him?"), and I said that God had gotten very mad at Cain, and had said, "Cain! That was very very bad! You must not do that!" This prompted a discussion about where God was when He was telling Cain off, so I said, "Heaven," which then led to another discussion about where Heaven was ("all around us..."). All this time Hadrien's pointing to the pictures, asking "Who dat?" or, "Is that Keym/Abel?," in his Inquiring-Minds-Want-To-Know! voice.

But ever inquisitive Baz did indeed want to know what happened after God got angry, so I told him that He had sent Cain away. Baz said, "No. He sent Cain to the corner!" Laughter all around.

What appeared to make an impact on Hadrien was when I said that Cain and Abel were brothers. He seemed intrigued by that concept as much as he found it funny (but also probably because he was focused on sound effects - as I was telling the story I made a 'toog' sound to indicate Cain's club hitting Abel).

To Baz, on the other hand, this meant role assignation: he immediately volunteered that he was Cain and that Hadrien was Abel. I shushed him, saying that the story wasn't meant to be made fun of that way, and asked him what the lesson from the story was. His very perceptive reply: "Don't fight."

Tomorrow: the boys deconstruct the Noah's Ark story.