Bad Guys, Super Heroes, and Jesus

Ah, the sounds of brothers playing nicely together.
“I got up and you say, ‘Whoa, I thought you died.’” my 7 year old commands.
“Whoa, I thought you died.” My 6 year old obeys and continues with, “Then I jump over the building and you say, ‘He is good!’”
“He is good.” Says the 7 year old with the same impressed-sounding emphasis on good.
This is how my boys often play. They narrate and direct each other. I really need to get them recorded before they grow out of this adorable phase. Meanwhile, my 5 year old son is asking, “Does Robin die? Does Batman die? Is Robin a boy? Can Robin die?”
Obviously my sons are big super hero fans. We even live with our very own super hero. My husband is a policeman. The forces of good verses evil seem to be the topic of conversation much of our day. If they’re not pretending, they’re asking questions. One of my recent favorites was, “Do bad guys sleep?” How did they come up with that one?
One day, I'm sure at God's prompting, I fired some questions right back at them. I asked, “What do bad guys do?”
“They kill people.”
Of course. “What else do they do?”
“They steal stuff.”
“Oh, like you stole that candy from your brother? Hmmmm, You’re a bad guy. Do bad guys lie?”
“Yeah.”
“Ok. Well you lied to me this morning. That means you’re a bad guy, too. Do bad guys say bad words?”
Now all three boys are a little more hesitant, “Yeah.”
“Mommy has said bad words before. I guess I’m a bad guy.” I really had their attention now. “We’re all bad guys. We all do things that are wrong. We sin. That’s why Jesus died for us.”
I don’t know if they totally understood, but one morning I overheard the following,
“I’m Batman!”
“I’m Spiderman!”
“I’m Jesus!”
I pray that someday my boys will see Jesus as their One True Super Hero!