Thanksgiving in a Whale

"But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD.’” -Jonah 2:9

This verse was the inspiration for a lesson on Jonah and giving thanks.

So I'm under a table that's covered in blankets, the belly of a whale if you will.
4 8ish year-old girls sitting comfortably there, just talking about old Jonah.
So we talk about how gross it would be in a whale.
And how Jonah just kept messing up.
I get to the part about how even though all the yucky stuff was happening to Jonah, he still gave a prayer of thanksgiving. And then I witnessed them get more involved in a lesson then ever before.
"Thanksgiving? How long was he in the whale for?"
"He ate Thanksgiving in the whale?"
"How did Santa get Jonah his presents?"
Great. They always say you're going to get asked questions you don't know the answer to, but I wasn't expecting this.
"Um, this is old Testament, Santa wasn't born yet."
I thought it was a good answer.
"What? No, Santa was ALWAYS born!"
"Yea!"
"Yea, Santa never dies!"
Good to know they'll fight for what they believe in.
The lesson went in a bit different direction then I planned, but that's okay. I can give thanks that I learned many lessons about Jonah, myself, and what not to say in front of little girls that day. There's always something to give thanks for, and probably more than we can even think of.