It was no surprise last night when we heard Charlie hollering for me a mere 10 minutes after he'd gone down to bed. It appears that his metabolism responds best to sitting down to a meal or laying down for bed -- most likely because those are the only times he's still.
Anyway, not too long ago Jason and I instituted a rule that if Charlie neglected to use the restroom prior to bed or meal, we would not read any stories when he went -- our futile effort to institute proactivity. So, last night as I sat on the bathmat, Charlie started to tell me stories. The first was about three little pigs who wanted some sugar...then got a tummy ache and went to the doctor, and the doctor said, "No more sugar for three little pigs!"
Then he tangented into something about firemen and somehow ended up telling me that Jesus not only lives inside him, but in his stomach. Which begged the question, "Does he eat and drink when I do?"
Flashback 30+ years and I distinctly remember laying in my little yellow room with the froggy wall hanging and asking my mom the very same question -- with a visual image in my head of an empty inside of my body with muscle-like walls and Jesus standing in the middle.
Suddenly aware of the power of early memories, I asked Charlie if he knew why Jesus was so important. Shaking his head no, he said, "Yes."
So I told him, "Well buddy. You know that God created all of us and is perfect, right?"
"Yes."
"But we all make mistakes."
"I don't make mistakes."
"Yes, Buddy, you do, and so do Mommy and Daddy and everyone else. Those mistakes keep us away from God, and there is nothing we can do to fix it."
"Why?"
"Because He is perfect, but Jesus is God's son and God sent Him to be born and live here on earth -- and He never made a mistake -- but then He died on the cross for our mistakes."
Blank stare.
"It was kind of like Jesus didn't do anything wrong, but then He went to time out so we wouldn't be in trouble."
"Why?"
"Because He and God loved us so much, they wanted us to be able to be with them."
"Oh. Ok."
"Well, then He came back to life and He is alive right now, so now we can be with God."
"When? Today? In Heaven?"
"Well, sort of. God can live in you because of what Jesus did, if you believe it. Then someday when either you die or Jesus comes back, you will go to Heaven to be with Him."
"Just me and God? Not you and Daddy?."
"No, Buddy. Daddy and I will be there, too, and Charlie, the day you understand and believe that with your heart and not just your head will be the very best day of your entire life."
"Ok. I'm done now."
Clearly not the environment in which we planned to share the complete gospel with Charlie for the first time, and I suppose I'll have to apologize someday if he has the visual memory I do -- but pretty exciting to know that he's at least heard the whole story!
