The Hard Stuff

My girls say so many things that make me laugh and sometimes make me cry. Elliott is the more insightful and intuitive one who always asks such hard questions like "Why does God let people get sick or hungry?" Already at 4 years old she is wrestling with a God she knows to be good and all powerful yet terrible things still happen. I don't have the perfect "tie it all up in a pretty bow" answers for her like I wish I did. I just remind her of who God is and there are just some things that we won't understand until heaven. She accepts it but I can see the confusion in her little eyes.

Here are some of her other questions/comments of late:

Why does God make words that make me carsick? (She gets carsick if she looks at books.)

When I get to heaven will I be a baby, a kid or a grown up? I think I will be a baby and start all over again.

When is God coming back? No one knows, do they? I can’t wait for that day, mommy.

Then the other day she told us we needed to adopt a little boy from China because she wants a baby brother. She then declared that his name should be "Snoop". It was all I could do to not laugh as I looked in her sweet big blue eyes full of sincerity. (Later I found out "Snoop" came from Snoopy which gave me relief. I was wondering if someone had introduced her to Snoop Doggy Dog and somehow that just doesn't seem appropriate for a 4 year old.)

God shows up so much for me in the form of my girls. I love their hearts and questions. I just hope they always feels safe to ask us the hard stuff.