The wisdom of a child

Javier and I rode in silence down the road. It had been a long day and riding in the dark in silence was a comfort.

A huge plane broke the night sky and flew overhead, heading to the nearby airport.

Claudia excited sings out "oh, look a plane! Look Lorenzo a big, big plane!"

Claudia, ever eager to chat tells Lorenzo "I remember going on a plane to nana and papa's house!"

In the nonchalant way only a child can speak she continues, "But nana's dead now."

Lorenzo picks up on this and chants "Nana's dead, nana's dead, nana's dead."

"Look, Clau-ya!" He says, his two year version of Claudia's name.

"Nana dead like this." He rolls his head back against the cushion of the carseat, eyes closed, jaw slack, mouth open wide.

Claudia ready to impart her wisdom as the older sister, puts her hands up in the air as if to say hold it and with breathless excitement exclaims "oh, oh, oh, I know, I know!" "Lorenzo, Nana is in heaven now! She's not dead. She's in heaven with God and her heart."

For a rare moment everyone in the car is quiet, reflecting...

Something new dawns on Claudia and she asks "Mommy, how did nana get to heaven?"

I sit there trying to quickly come up with the best answer, knowing my atheist husband is also listening. What pressure! In my quick pause, Javier throws in "she took a plane!"

Before I could even think, I head the words coming out of my mouth, "No, Claudia. Jesus came down and took nana up to heaven with Him."

The beauty and truth of that simple statement daily wraps it's arms around me and comforts me.

I look forward to the moment when I share with Claudia in detail how nana went from papa's arms to the arm's of Jesus. That sacred, holy moment when nana let go of this world, of papa's hands and grabbed hold of her Savior's.