Oh, you can’t get to heaven…in a rocking chair…

We used to sing a song growing up…”You can’t get to heaven…in a rocking chair…’cause a rocking chair…don’t go up there…” or “You can’t get to heaven…in a limousine…’cause heaven don’t got no gasoline…and so on…

Goofy song, but the whole idea of heaven has been coming up lately in my mind and in our house. There is a funeral home pretty close to our house, so I drive by it frequently. Many times, there will be a full parking lot, which always makes me sad. It is a visual reminder of the sense of loss that death of a loved one can bring, even though I personally have confidence in life after death because of Jesus’ death and resurrection and my personal relationship with Him.

But, how in the world do you explain all that to a three year old? The idea of going to heaven for eternity after you die is tremendously difficult to comprehend, even as an adult, making it next to impossible to explain to Madi. Kids are so literal; she keeps telling me that if we drive our car “really fast”, we’ll get to heaven, which just leaves me stammering, “Well, not exactly…but good idea?”

I think part of my problem is that I want to protect her from the idea of death, instead referencing heaven as an awesome place that we will go to a “long, long time from now” and a place where we will see Jesus face to face. She picks up so much, and I don’t want her vocabulary to include words of grief…just yet. She can be sad about less important things, like leaving the playground or being in trouble for disobeying, but I want to postpone sadness about more difficult things as long as I can.

In the meantime, I guess I just need to trust God that He will give me the words to say at the right time and trust Madi (and Parker) to be able to take ownership of that knowledge when they are ready.