Talks of Heaven and Hell and everything in between

I've been thinking about Heaven a lot lately.  Just wondering about it.

No, that's not quite right.  I've been thinking about my mom a lot lately.  As she's with Jesus now, I've been wondering a lot about Heaven, too.  As it turns out, I had a lot of misconceptions and generalizations.  I guess I've kind of Hollywood-ized Heaven in my mind.

Thad and I recently sat down for a meal with our pastor and his awesome family to discuss some questions I had.  What followed was an amazing time filled with laughter but also enlightenment.  Isn't it great when you have a mentor like that--one that really knows the heart of Christ, and will take the time to help you grow your faith?

Well, I got to pass a little bit of that enlightenment on today.  Maybe I can be a mentor, too?

I had my niece and nephew over for the afternoon today.  They are three and five years old right now, and a couple of my favorite people on this good earth.  It was a beautiful day out, so instead of video games, we decided to take a blanket out to the front yard and have some together time.  We're not very good at just sitting, so we played some games, we found shapes in the clouds, we pretended, and we talked, talked, talked.

One thing that has been heavy on my nephew's mind is his Grandma Nancy, who went to be with the Lord last June.  As you can see from the picture, they had a wonderful relationship!  As it happens, we talked about Grandma Nancy which led to talk about Heaven which led to talk about Heaven vs. Hell and how you get to either place which led to talk about God and Jesus and sin and forgiveness.  Guess who is super thankful she just had a crash course/refresher on Heaven?  This aunt here!

I'm not sure that I did or said everything right, but it kept their interest for about 45 minutes.  But seriously, I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to witnessing to a five-year-old!  I especially thought I was bumbling it when we had the following conversation towards the end:

My niece: I don't like God.
Me: Why?
My niece: He's mean.
My nephew: Oh man, she's going to Hell!

I gotta tell you, it was hard to keep a straight face.  In fact, I didn't even try.  We talked for a little while longer on this subject, and then moved on to other things.

I called my brother later this evening to tell him what we talked about, just in case he had to field some questions he wasn't expecting.  He said that after he picked the kiddos up, just before they got home, my nephew said:

"We need to always listen to God.  We should talk to Him every day."

And there's your lesson for the day.  Straight from the mouth of a five-year-old.

Not to toot my own horn, but I can't tell you how glad I am that some of what I said made sense.  That even if he got nothing else out of our conversation, he understood that amazing principal.  My little auntie heart is full to bursting!