Seth has been asking tons of questions about Jesus, God, heaven, faith . . . all of it. I love talking with him about it. It can also, however, be overwhelming as he's a thinker (for sure!) and I don't pretend to have all of the answers! Here are a couple of our conversations (all of which happen at bedtime):
A few nights ago, I was putting the kids to bed and Seth -- like only he can -- was engaged in calisthenics in the hallway while I was tucking in Zechariah and Leah. By the time I reached his room, I was completely exasperated ready to be done with bedtime and I asked him, "Seth. Why can't you just get in your bed and wait for me to come snuggle you?" He didn't hesitate:
"Mommmm. Because people are sinners!"
Um, what? What did you say? I asked. He wouldn't repeat it. I said, "Did you say people are sinners?" {slowly nods head}
Let's pause for a moment because I think I must explain that we haven't used that language in our house. We talk about good choices and bad choices and God's forgiveness, but I hadn't yet introduced the sin concept.
So we continued: Where did you hear that? {crickets} Church? No. School? Nope. Did I tell you about sin? Nuh uh. So who? Nothing.
With a deep breath, I started to explain sin and how Jesus died for our forgiveness. For our sins. I laid it all out. I told him we all sin. And, he went right where I was afraid he would go: "Why doesn't Zechariah sin?" No, no, no!!! Of course Zechariah sins. "Well, like three times." No. More than three times. Commence lengthy conversation about allllll the different types of sin, seen and unseen. My word, this child. By the end he was probably more confused than not. But we both survived.
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A few nights later, we read about Jacob's ladder in our Advent book and this started a conversation about heaven. Seth asked a bunch of questions which led to "What does it mean that Jesus PAID for all the sin?" I explained how Jesus was crucified, died, went down into hell to pay for our sins, and then rose again and lives in heaven forever.
Does not compute.
So we talked Aslan. How he exchanged places with Edmond, who was supposed to be killed, and was killed instead. Bingo. He got it. The next questions were all about hell and what that means and where it is and what it's like. I just quoted scripture, over and over. Because really, heck if I know! By the end of the conversation Seth was certain he wants to go to heaven and loves Jesus. He does NOT want to go to hell. Me neither, buddy. Me neither.
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I have conversations like these and then can't help but look to the future, when I dream of taking all three kiddos to Uganda to be baptized together in the Nile River. Oh how I long for that day!
To God be the Glory!
