Saturday, March 14, 2009

Eternal Questions from a Four Year Old

Lunchtime today: Our planned picnic was rained out, so Hannah opted to eat her picnic lunch in the car. I said ok, since I had to sit somewhere and feed Aliah, and I figured that was a good enough place to keep Hannah contained and dry for about 30 minutes.

Hannah suddenly turned to me and asked "Mommy? When can I go live with Jesus?"
I was a little surprised by this question. "You mean, in heaven?"
"Yes. When can I go to heaven?"
"Well sweetie, we can only go to heaven if we believe in him, and if we are dead."
"Well, when will I die?"
"I'd rather not think about that. Probably not for a very long time."
"Maybe in fifteen years! That's a long time! Or maybe even 11 or 12 years." (I think 11 has recently become her favorite number.)
"Maybe", I said, trying to eat my sandwich.
Then Hannah said "Grandma Pete died and went to heaven."
"That's right Hannah, she did."
"And it was sad."
"It was sad, and I would be very sad if you died."
"I would be really sad if you died too, Mommy. And it would be really really sad if Daddy or Aliah died."
I tried to explain that heaven is actually a very happy place, and steer the conversation back to happy things, but then she went quiet. And that was the end of it.

Well, that was our lunchtime conversation. What was yours?

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