In our current daily routine, I leave work and pick up my almost five year old son (next week), Riley, from day care and then drive less than fifteen minutes and pick up my six year old son, Jonah, from school. In the few minutes that we have in the car together alone before we pick up Jonah, there is usually a discussion about how the day went, if you went outside and what you did outside, who was there and who wasn't, and how many "feet" you had left and why. For those who haven't heard about the "feet" system, let me explain.
At our day care, everyone starts the day with 3 feet. These 3 feet have your name on them and are hanging on a string on the wall. Now, if you misbehave then you have to remove one of your feet and put it in the boot. Cute, huh? If at the end of the day you have at least one foot remaining, then you get a prize from the treasure box. Literally, some days there are kids just hanging by a toe.
So....you can imagine that the entire ride from daycare to school pick up is full of conversation....especially if you have met Riley. He enjoys talking. Last week we quickly covered all of the normal topics of afternoon conversation very quickly in our ride. And there were a few moments of quiet and then the discussion began....
Riley: Mom, do you know that you don't have to have money in heaven?
Me: Really, why?
Riley: Because Jesus will just give you whatever you ask for. If you ask for something, He'll just ok, here it is.
Me: Wow, that's pretty cool. (few moments of silence)
Riley: Mom, you know that you don't have to cook in heaven.
Me: Really....that's cool.
Riley: Yeah, if you get hungry, you just ask Jesus and He'll say, ok, here it is. And it's already cooked. That's kind of magical.
Me: Yeah, that is awesome.
Riley: But, if you're bad you get kicked out of heaven and have to go live with the devil. You only get one chance you know.
(Theological discussion begins....)
Me: Well, I don't think that we will want to do bad things when we get to heaven. You see, when we go to heaven, we're going to get new bodies and in those bodies we will not want to do bad things anymore.
Riley: New bodies...oh....then we won't have to get kicked out.
Me: That's right. Once we get to heaven then we never have to leave.
(Few moments of silence)
Me: Riley, what do you think heaven looks like? Do you think it has green grass, a sun and clouds?
Riley: No...it's gold.
Me: Wow, that is amazing.
Riley: Yeah, so it's really sparkly. And silver. That's sparkly too. And you know, that when you get to heaven....you can touch the sun?
Me: Yeah, I guess you can touch the sun because you'll have that new body.
Part of this conversation, I'm sure is his imagination - how he pictures Jesus in his imagination cooking his food in seconds and just giving it to him. He may be thinking that when he asks Jesus for something to eat, that he won't get the response "No, you don't eat that for breakfast" or "No, you can't have that before dinner". However, his idea of the closeness of Jesus and how beautiful heaven will be....now that is right on.
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Beautiful. Logan is under the impression that he will have to take his friends with him to heaven. He said to me last year (3 1/2)"Mom, I guess when God reaches down His hand and carries me to heaven, my friend's will just have to hold on to my leg." LOL All I could picture was a giant hand coming from the clouds-holding Logan's hand with thousands of kids hanging onto his leg. It almost made me cry b/c I thought of all the people's lives my children could touch throughout theirs.
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