todojoven.org

    (a man sits on stage in his living room, watching TV, surfing through the channels, busily working his remote control, completely engrossed)   (clicks through many channels, pauses on a sports program, roots for a few moments, moves onto a comedy and laughs and laughs, then searches many more channels, listens to a political talk show and gets angry with the commentator, then goes through several more channels with varied and conflicting emotions -- finally settles on some show that captivates him, he lowers the remote to the arm of his chair)   (entering, carrying a doll, engrossed in some inner dialogue, tilting her doll back and forth, she comes and sits near her father's foot) Papa? How come dolls close their eyes when you put them backwards like this?   (glances away from TV for a moment, looks at daughter briefly, glances at doll, then looks back to the TV) Huh?   I said how come dolls close their eyes?   (engrossed by the screen) Yeah. Uh-huh.   (exasperated, grabs her father's leg and shakes it) How come? How come? Papa, how come?   (shows a little exasperation) Don't you have homework?   (rolls her eyes) It's SUMMER, Papa, I don't GOT homework in the summer!   (without looking away from screen) I don't HAVE homework in the summer!   (gives father an incredulous look) OF COURSE you don't got homework in the summer! You got out of school a long, long, long time ago! Papa, did they even HAVE schools way back when you were a kid?   I think your Mama is calling you...   Well you must have GREAT ears, because she's at the MALL! (she looks back at the TV) What are you watching, Papa?   (immediately changes channel) Oh! It was some documentary on the Documentary Channel, really boring...   But why were those ladies walking around in their underwear?   Oh! They were just going over the history of . . . FASHION. Um, now what were you talking about? You said your doll has homework about why the eye closes?   (plays with her doll some more) Papa? Do you love me?   (goes back to channel surfing) Of course, Sweetheart.   (thinking) Would you ever make me go somewhere where some bad people were gonna kill me?   Of course not.   (thinking) God must have didn't loved Jesus very much.   (disturbed, half looks away from TV thinking) WHAT did you just say?   (she doesn't answer, just keeps playing with her doll, but she seems upset)   (finally turns his attention completely to his daughter) Did you just say that God didn't love Jesus?   (sad) It's in the Bible. God sent Jesus to here, and everybody killed Him. You wouldn't send me to a place where people were gonna kill me. Because you love me.   (ashamed and feeling guilty) No, no -- oh no, Sweetheart. Come here... (takes her by the hand and sets her on his knee) That doesn't mean that God didn't love His Son. You know, He's such a better Father than I am. (glances guiltily at the TV -- pointedly, aims the remote control and ZAPs the TV) In fact, sometimes I'm not such a great father, at all...   But why would He send Him here to get killed?   Jesus WANTED to come here. We know that the biggest, most powerful love in the world is when someone is willing to die for another person -- that's how much Jesus loves you. That's how much GOD loves us. I bet it broke God's heart to send His only Son here to die. It was probably the hardest thing in the world . . . the hardest thing in heaven. But that's how much God loves us . . . we are His kids.   (thinking) So its kinda like if my baby brother Toby was in danger, you might let me go and save him, because he's so little and wimpy? You'd let me go and die to save him?   (thinking, becoming emotional) I don't -- well, I guess . . . I mean... (thinks hard, stares into his daughter's face)   Would you let me die, Papa?   (grabs his daughter and hugs her to him hard) Sweetheart, I don't know if I'm that good of a father. God is such a better Father than I am, He's so much better than me...