Under Interrogation

Oh, my sweet Lucas.  He is at the age where he is FULL of questions!!  "Mommy, how did the babies get in your belly?" "Mommy, why don't we ever see God?" And his latest, "Mommy, what happens to us when we die?"  This latest question was brought on by him accidentally walking in on a viewing of Pet Semetary (thanks, Scott).  He saw the scene where the little boy was hit by a truck (great, huh?)  Anyway, this brought on a slew of questions and lots of worry from my little man.  He asked me what happened to that little boy.  Seeing as how he was spared from seeing what actually happened in the movie, I told him the little boy went to Heaven.  Now, he has asked a lot about why I don't have a mommy, and he knows she also lives in Heaven.  So, he has tried to resolve this in his mind, and I have tried my best to help him understand the concept of death and the afterlife.  So far, we have established the following: (These are on simplified, three-year-old terms)

• You don't have to be old to die.  When God wants you to come and live with Him, you do.
• Mommy hopes you don't go live with God until you are at least 100.
• Mommy and daddy will try their best not to go live with God until we are at least 100.
• People who don't love Jesus don't go to Heaven (This is still touchy for him.  He has asked EVERYONE if they love Jesus since learning this fact)
• Babies go to Heaven even if they can't say they love Jesus yet

That pretty much covered all his questions, for now.  Whew, this stage has me sweating.  Some of these out-of-the-blue questions really challenge me in my way of life.  I never want my child to doubt God's existence, as is the way of many these days, so I want to be so careful about his foundation of belief.  I don't want God to be like Mario or Diego or some other fictional character that he loves. I want him to see that God is real, and the only way he can see that at his age is through my actions.  My prayer is that I can steer my children in the right direction through my words and behavior until they are old enough to understand and believe on their own.