Tuesday, May 20, 2014

What Death Means to a Little Brother

I hadn't actually told Theo that Noah died. I've only said that he went to Heaven. I didn't think he was ready to hear what that actually meant. The time would come when I wouldn't be able to hold off any longer. Well, last week it came up a couple of times. I lightly touched on the subject after each time. Yesterday, he asked, "When we die, do we get to stay home?" "No," I said. "When we die, if we love Jesus, we go to live in Heaven. Usually people go to Heaven a very long time from now but your brother was sick. So, he got to go to Heaven early." He thought about that for a bit and then asked, "is Noah still sick?" I replied, "No, you are never sick in Heaven." Then he said, "Noah loves to play with me. He loves rocket ships and cars." So, that conversation wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be. It was the start of a future conversation on what it really means to love Jesus and how to get to Heaven for eternity. I'd like Theo to know that Noah is not really dead. As far as this awful world is concerned, he is, but by Heavenly standards, he lives.