Yesterday, while in the car, Isabelle asked, “Where is
Heaven?” It came out of nowhere since we hadn’t been talking about anything
around the subject any time recently. Whenever one of these big life questions
comes up, I feel like I always have no idea what to say. So I answered by
saying that it’s up in the sky above the clouds. She then followed it by asking
“How do you get to Heaven?” I really had a tough time coming up with an answer
to this one on the spot. So I said when you are sick or there’s an accident,
God decides it’s time for you to join him and you go up to Heaven. Apparently,
I shouldn’t have stressed about this answer because her follow up question of “Do
you climb a ladder to get there?” made it clear that she literally meant how do
you get there. I should have remembered that I was dealing with a four year old
who was thinking of how to physically get above the clouds and not someone
looking for a big meaningful talk about God! She went for totally gut wrenching
with the next question of, “What do you think your Mom is doing in Heaven?”
Isabelle was only one when my mother died so she doesn’t remember her, but we
talk about her often and we bring flowers to the cemetery. So I told her that
Grammy is doing all the things she loves, eating her favorite foods, watching
over us, and loving us from Heaven. She seemed pleased with this answer and all
in all I think the talk went well (I also struggled when she asked if there
were kids in Heaven). I love that she is curious and that she wants to know
more about life, death, and all that comes in between. Sometimes I just wish
that I had more time to think up the answers!
How do you handle the rough questions?
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| Turn left at the second cloud and Heaven will be on your right. |
