Nov 12 2008
Clown of God by Tomie DePaola
At St. Bonaventure Homeschool Cooperative this week, the younger kid’s group listened to the book Clown of God by Tomie DePaola. Besides the illustrations being wonderful, the story is heartwarming, but not in a mushy sort of way!
The message is that all can bring the joy of heaven to others through their simple good works and talents.
The Clown, an accomplished juggler, uses his gift to bring joy and laughter to his audience. He didn’t realize it was a way to bring God to people as well. As the story unfolds, the Clown loses his good fortune and returns to the state of a poor beggar as he had been as a child.
Just before dying,the Clown realizes that juggling is his unique gift from God, and in a touching scene he gives back to God his beautiful gift.
When we finished the story, each of the kids got a “gold coin”. This coin represented the one special gift or talent that each of them was particularly proud to possess. In a very informal ceremony, each child presented his or her gold coin to God (we had a statue of Mary and Jesus in the room). This helped them to identify a personal talent or gift, helped them to offer it to God, and hopefully, helped them to go forth and share this gift with others, thereby “storing up treasure in heaven”.
Peace,
Ann
