Long, Long Ago

This weekend I learned that I should pay more attention to how I refer to events of the past. In VBS last week the kids spent the first 3 days learning about Moses and the burning bush, the plagues on Egypt and Passover, then we fast fowarded to Jesus' death on the cross on day 4 and on the final day back Moses and the parting of the sea. This Sunday I just gave a refresher course for the kids in Sunday school because I was too tired (and a little bit lazy) to come up with a lesson on my own. As I retold the stories from the 5 days in condensed form, I realized how challenging it is to explain to kids the time difference between Moses' Day and Jesus' Day when using phrases like "A long time ago" and "A long, long time ago". It was brought to my attention that I must have used one of these phrases in reference to my childhood at one time or another, when one of my children wondered if I might have been in attendance at the parting of the red sea...to them everything that isn't now was a LONG time ago.