Bedtime with Abouna

At our house currently, my daughter and I read one chapter of the Bible and a chapter from a children's book every night before bedtime. For the last couple of weeks, she has insisted we read a random chapter of the Bible of her choice. While this has a lot of downsides, it has one upside for me in that I am exposed to completely different parts of the Bible and often to books I don't usually read. But as an overall policy, I explained to her that chapters of books need to be taken as they were written to make sense of the story.

Last night was her first bedtime with her father on this routine. Abouna and I emphasized this point again: We should pick a book and stick with it. But my daughter insisted.

She chose 1 Maccabees 16, and her father laughed.

"This doesn't make sense! You can't start a story from the middle. Look... if I read, 'Then John raised an army...,' what John am I talking about?!"

"John the Baptist!"

"No... not John the Baptist."

"I know, I know! John the Beloved."

"To be honest, these are both excellent answers," he said with a chuckle, "But this is John the Maccabee!"

He took a deep breath, then continued. "And if I read here, 'And Simon said to John'--"

"--Simon Peter!"

"No! This is Simon, John the Maccabee's father!"

And we all collapse into fits of laughter. "I can't do this," Abouna said, "It just doesn't work. We have to pick a book and focus on it."

After we read the chapter in the book of the Bible they chose together, it was time for a chapter from a children's book. She and I usually read from the Junie B. Jones series, seeing how they're both in Kindergarten.

Her father: "Today, I am going to tell you MY story about Junie B. Jones! Junie B. Jones visits the Coptic Church!"

Now I could tell you the entire amazing first half of Junie B. Jones visits the Coptic Church verbally created on the fly last night, but since my daughter wants to write it all out for her dad and publish it... Let me just give you a taste.

For example, when Junie B. gets out of the car and sees the church doors open, she gets very anxious and starts to shout: "The church is on fire! The church is on fire! Look at all that smoke!"

And you should really hear what she does instead of a metanoia (prostration)!

Although he can't often be there for bedtime, Abouna takes bedtime to a whole different level! Junie B. Jones visits the Coptic Church... Can you imagine?