Noah's ark

Zeke has a toychest that I think we inherited from someone, I forget who, decorated with bright-colored Noah's ark motifs. I've never given it much thought. Today, though, he was sitting looking at it and pointing out the pairs of animals. For each pair, he told me, "That's the mommy alligator, and that's the baby alligator. That's the mommy giraffe, that's the baby giraffe." Et cetera. Anyhow, it occurred to me that the Noah's ark story, which of all Bible stories we probably treat as the one most appropriate and least complicated for young children, is a story that most little kids probably completely misunderstand, given that they wouldn't have any clue why there would need to be pairs of animals on the ark. The cute, innocent "floating zoo" -- the impression that I suspect many kids have of the ark -- is a little world containing only adult animals, none of the animal babies that small children are often so interested in. Which, to me, is just an interesting example of the way common ideas in our culture might look very different from a small child's perspective. I wonder when Zeke will figure out that the pairs of animals on his toychest are not actually mommies and babies.

P.S. That picture is a random toy I found online, not something we own, but if you have a hankering for it, it can be had for about twenty dollars from a website called -- ahem -- Punkin-Butt. It's down at the bottom of the page.