Years ago, I was teaching a Sunday school class of three years olds each week.  One particular Sunday, we had an “open house” of sorts so that parents could come and watch their darling kids in action.

I was fairly new at this teaching thing and I wanted it to go well.  That is, I didn’t want any parents worried that I might not be teaching their kids the proper things.

Now, one thing to keep in mind for this story is that little kids often have trouble pronouncing some of their consonants.  The letter ‘r’ and the letter ‘l’ frequently get mixed up.

The week before, our lesson had been about a woman named Lydia, mentioned in Paul’s writings in the New Testament.  Paul said that Lydia sold purple cloth, and we had discussed how purple was usually sold to royalty and other wealthy people, people with a lot of money.

So during the open house, we sat in our story circle, parents and children together.  I asked who remembered what we had talked about the previous week.

One little girl, Rebecca, raised her hand, and said, “We talked about Lydia.”

“Very good Rebecca!” I replied.

I continued with, “Who remembers what Lydia sold?”

John raised his hand and timidly responded, “I think she sold purple cloth.”

“Good job, John,” I affirmed.

And now the big question.  Would the kids remember this?  I held my breath, bit my tongue, and then asked, “And who usually bought purple cloth?”

There was silence for a moment, and then Henry blurted out, “The witch!”

My face paled.

I heard a gasp in the crowd.  We hadn’t talked about any witch before.

“The witch?” I said, meekly.

“Yes, she sold it to the witch, people who are weally weally witch!”