Mackenzie came to me today in the mood for a good old fashioned grown up chat.
“I don’t know about you, Mom, but I sure am ready to go to Heaven”, she says to me.
“Me too. Isn’t it going to be great when we all go to Heaven?”
“Yeah, but first we have to get killed”, she says matter-of-factly.
“Well, we don’t have to get killed to get into Heaven. A lot of people get really old before they get to go.”
“You’re old, Mom.”
“I mean really old. Older than Mrs. Kessel (an eightyish woman we visit). Of course, we may not have to die at all; Jesus can come back for us at any minute. Wouldn’t that be cool to see?”
“Yeah, but, how do we get into Heaven?”
Oh boy. I love that she asks questions like this, but I always have to say a quiet and desperate prayer that nothing I say will mess her up more than mold her properly.
“Well, Mackenzie, you know that Jesus fixed it so we can go to Heaven.”
“Why did He have to fix it?”
Now, here is where I decide to test her scope of understanding and discover that she is way deeper than I give her credit for.
“There are two ways to get into Heaven. The first way is to be perfect your whole life; never break any rules, never be mean to anybody, and never hurt your brother’s feelings.”
Her face falls at this very bad news. In just the span of one morning she had already blown her shot at getting in to Heaven.
“But, Mackenzie, there is some very good news for you. God knew that we couldn’t be perfect, no matter how hard we tried, so He sent Jesus to fix it so that we can get into Heaven.”
“That’s good, but how do we get into Heaven? Is there a door, or do we have to call first?”
There is apparently a big gate.
See? Now we know. There’s a gate, though I do wonder if we have to call first.
I don’t know about calling first but I think you did a good job with the other part.
From what I heard, they call you…
Did you miss us at church today?
P.S. Congrats on your difficult accomplishment last Friday, whatever it is.
“When the roll is CALLED up yonder…” I guess you’re right.
And yes, we really did miss you guys Sunday. Without you and RuthAnn to keep my busy I wound up signing up for all kinds of volunteer stuff.
And, my big accomplishment, according to Sarah, was that I let my house get dirty for a whole day. That’s right. I’ve been a touch under the weather and she said that she would come over to clean my house, but only if I let it go all day. It was very tricky and I almost caved, but I did not clean.