By Emil Prisquilas Peter (M.Div. ’26)
I would imagine that the kindergartner would have experienced bullying here from one or a group of his female classmates, who would have mentioned the phrase “Boys go to Jupiter to get stupider” to indirectly imply that all boys are stupider and less important when compared to girls. Putting myself in the shoes of the child, I would imagine that he is very sad and low in confidence owing to the bullying that he just experienced. He might have come under the apprehension that being a boy, he might be stupid and he is not at par with the girls in the class.
At such a young age, being bullied and, coming to false and incorrect conclusions could be detrimental to a child’s mental growth and confidence. Knowing this fact and, understanding the sensitivity of the matter at hand, his mother sets on a corrective course. First of all, she educates him about the solar system. She wants him to understand the structure of the universe that we are living in and wants him to learn about the different planets in our solar system. Then she makes the lesson more fun by taking him to an observatory to view Jupiter and Moon, followed by a visit to a daytime telescope to view Mercury and Sun, providing him the visual aid to solidify his understanding by making him see by himself what he had learned about. I really liked the mother’s choice of planets here. She chose Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, and Mercury, the smallest planet in the solar system. Choosing polar opposite-sized planets clearly would solidify his perception of the solar system.
Later after their small study tour, she gave him a copy of Psalm 121 to read. Psalm 121 is the song of ascents, which reminds us of God’s care for us and to be confident in Him to take care of us. With the Psalms reading, she is strengthening him to deal with the bullying that happened to him today and at the same time preparing him for many more such events that might happen to him in the future. She is urging him to keep trust in God, our Lord, to take care of him in times of trials and tribulations that he might face in his life. God will be with him in times of trouble and will make sure no harm occurs to him. It is the same God who created the solar system that he just learned about and saw, which is just a tiny speck in God’s colossal creation. As mentioned in verse 6, “The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night”, our Creator has put so much care into the order of the universe that the Sun and the Moon that he sees in the sky would bring no harm to him. If He could protect him from these celestial bodies, for sure He would protect him from any evil that could befall him in his life. The life of his mother is a testimony to the fact that “God will protect him”.
So, if we go by the literal sense of the phrase itself, knowing about Jupiter and for instance, one day being able to arrive on Jupiter, doesn’t make him stupider but smarter. Good education along with courageous decisions taken with trust in God would only lead him to enlightenment and success. This doesn’t put him below par with others but above par. He should be paying no heed to what people around him have to say, for in Matthew 15.14 we read “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” So, paying attention to the “blind” would only lead him to fall and fail in his life. He is guided by the “Light of the world”, who has removed his blindness, and he should be led only by His Word. Through this exercise, his mother carefully prepares him to tackle bullying and stereotypes that he would have to face in his life. And she girds him with the very sword that she had used in her life to ward off troubles and trials in her life, which is The Trust in God.
