Out of the mouths of babes...

Jack and Molly live for "lie down time".  This is what they call it when Marc or I actually lies down with them in bed before they fall asleep.  Sitting on the edge doesn't count - for some reason it doesn't have the magic that helps them go to sleep.  Marc has weaned Jack down to five minutes, and Molly hovers between five and ten before she's ready to let me go without a fight. 

Tonight during our lie down time, she was so tired her eyes were rolling and half closed.  But still, she managed to throw me a curve ball.

"Mama?  Remember God's favorite angel who turned into the snake and got sent away?  Is he really real?  Is he really around?  Like around us?"

Sheesh!  Inches from the daily finish line and I get one of the BIGGIES?  Oy, vey.

Not wanting to scare her before she fell asleep with tales from the dark side, I gave her the sugar coated story about how Jesus protects us and satan can't come near us, even though he does try to tempt us to do bad things.

There!  Done!  Goodnight!

"Mama?"

Uh-oh.  "Yes Molly?"

"Where does he live?"

Remembering to keep it simple, I tell her, "he lives in hell."

"What's it like there?"

Deep breath.  "Oh, well, no one really knows for sure.  And I sure don't because I've never been there, and I hope I never will!  Some people think it's a horrible, hot, fiery place that's awful to be in.  But other people think that it's only terrible because the souls there are kept apart from God.  And being apart from God is so sad, so miserable, that it's really an awful punishment."

"Does anyone else live there?"

"Um.  Well.  Yes.  But only the reallyreallyreally bad people go to there when they die."

Then the conversation went on and on because she wanted to know if Jack would have to go there because he's naughty a lot, or if she would.  Like, if she decided to only do bad things for the rest of her life, would she go there?

And I told her no.  That I was sure with all my heart that she would never ever go there.  Because her heart is full of kindness and love and she could never be evil like that.

"But", she reminded me, "sometimes I  do bad things."

"Yes," I told her.  "Sometimes we all  do bad things.  That's because we're HUMAN.  We make mistakes all the time because we're imperfect and always trying to get it right.  But God gave us the bible, and his son, Jesus, and lots of other good people to show us the right way to live.  And when we go to heaven to be with God, we won't make those mistakes any more because we'll have learned how to stop making them."

"Oh," she said.  "So life is a lot like school."

Yes, love.  Yes it is.

(And this teacher is wiping her brow and signing off for the night!)