Dogs and Death

I guess you can't expect tough questions to come at convenient times... although at home on a normal day is as good as time as any. Yesterday, Stephanie was going through an old sketch book and showed Elijah one particular work of art. "Look, Squeeze. It's my old dog Shafer."

"Where is she?" he asked.

"Well, Buddy. Shafer died."

"Died?"

"Yeah. None of us live forever. One day our puppies are going to die."

Elijah's face sagged as he displayed a giant frown. "Oh, no. I'm not going to see Beans and Peno?"

Stephanie tried to explain a little about death and what happens when people die. I guess it made an impression, because a while later when on the phone with his grandmother, he said, "Granmommy, you're going to die one day."

Nice.

Stephanie did explain a little to my mom why her grandson wanted to discuss the fragile reality of her mortal state. Then again at dinner tonight, he brought it all up again. He wanted to know if we would ever see our house after we die, and where would we sleep in heaven, and where would the bad people go who put Jesus on the cross, and would he be put on a cross.... Man, I felt a little over my head. How much can a four year old handle? How much of this stuff do I try and explain?

Stephanie even got to cover Jesus' humanity when Elijah asked, "Mama, did Jesus have poop in his body?" I guess that's a four year old boy's way of pondering the Person of Christ, 100% man yet 100% God.