From the Mouths of Babes, Redux

I know I've said this before - lots of times - but it happened again.  My child popped off with a Biblical truth that surprised the pants off of me, because it was profound and completely unexpected.  The scenario?  Riding in the car, all three kids in tow, listening to the radio.  This is what Quinn says from the back seat....

Quinn: "Mom, it's really true that we don't always understand what we're saying and doing when we go to church."
Mom: "Uh, yeah."
Quinn: "I know something that we say that alot of people don't understand... what it means to be 'born again'."
Mom: (utterly surprised at the entire conversation) "You're right Quinn.  Alot of people don't know what that means, even if they think they do."
Quinn: "I know what it means."
Mom: "You do?"
Quinn: "Yes.  We become 'born again' when we become a child of God."
Mom: "Yup.  When does that happen?"
Quinn: "When we're baptized."
Mom: "Exactly."

I am the fist to admit that my children are FAR from holy.  Mischieveous, yes.  Over-exuberant, yes.  Holy??? Not so much.  BUT, they continue to amaze me at the level of their understanding, and at the simplicity and profound TRUTH of their faith.  They GET IT, in a way so many adults don't.  And they're only six.  And it's really not because of anything I taught them.  They just KNOW somehow.  And it pops out at the most unexpected times.

Mother's Day

Colby, at our Mother's Day luncheon with the family today, unexpectedly launched into a long description of a recent dream that he had.

Colby:  "Mom, I dreamt that we had two babies instead of one, and that she was like you and was an identical twin."

I stopped cold.  What was he talking about?

Me: "So, this was your dream?"

Colby: "Yeah, but it seemed really real.  Not just like a dream.  There were two babies, and they were identical and looked exactly alike, but one lived with us, and one lived in a house in the woods."

Me: "Was it me and Aunt Elle?  People used to say we looked alike."

Colby: "No, it wasn't her.  It was our baby that looked like you, and she had an identical twin, who lives in the woods now, in a house."

I gave a pointed look across the table at Rob ("are you hearing this???"), but he couldn't make out the conversation above the noise.  I was flabbergasted.

What Colby DOESN'T know, because I don't think we ever discussed it with him, and he was 3 years old when it happened, so he COULDN'T know (could he?) - is that Reagan was an identical twin, and we miscarried her sister early on in the pregnancy.  We DID have "two babies", and one DOES live with us, and the other doesn't.  The other thing that struck me is that he didn't say the baby was REAGAN.  He called her "the baby that looked like you".  A few years ago before Reagan was born, I had an autistic boy predict her birth, down to the month, by saying that we'd have a "girl who looked like you", to be born in November.  Colby used the same phrase, which I found odd.  Obviously the little girl in his dream didn't look exactly like Reagan looked now, because he equated to her looking like ME, not Reagan.  And even though he kept talking about "two babies", his description led me to believe that they were older girls that he was seeing in his dream, because a baby wouldn't look like ME in a six year old's dream.  He had already said earlier in the day that he wondered what I looked like as a child, because he had no idea.  He wouldn't have recognized someone who looked like me as a child.  He WOULD recognize someone older, who looked like I do NOW.  Am I making any sense at all?  I'm sure I'm analyzing this too much, but it just makes me go "hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm".

In all honesty, I really felt like I was just wished Happy Mother's Day from our little girl up in Heaven.  See, she's okay! Living in a house in the woods, and talking to her brother at night while he sleeps.  Sweet girl.  I can't wait to meet you someday.

Things I've Been Pondering

Life is much more busy than it should be, and I don't have time to write as much as I'd like, but these are the things I've been pondering of late (to be expounded upon someday when "things settle down")

• The face of Jesus - as a man, an indivdual, in the earthly confines of time, and how amazingly icons and images corroborate with each other.  The miraculous nature of some images amazes and humbles me.
• Life after death
• The Judgement, and what that means -- I'm coming to realize how much we condemn ourselves with our actions, running away from God's overwhelming love, and how He allows us to live with the consequences of those actions.
• Why Reagan always points to the ceiling at church and yells (loudly, irreverently) "BUTTERFLIES!  BUTTERFLIES!"  Or - in two year old speak - "FUFFERFLIES".  Is she seeing something the rest of us can't?
• The loneliness of our human lives, despite the busyness and chaos.  How we each crave, at the core, to be loved, accepted, and to BELONG.  And Who exactly fills that longing.
• How much an atheist has to DENY about the world around them, and deny about their own humanity, in order to substantiate their theory that this is all there is.   The tragedy of that, and how I often feel that they're really just asking the wrong questions, and looking for answers in all the wrong places.
• Confession and forgiveness.  Taking responsibility for our own sins enough to ADMIT them, outloud, to a spiritual leader.  Because it's no different than me making my son look his father in the eye and admit why he got in trouble in school, even though Dad KNOWS why he got in trouble, and my son is already SORRY for getting in trouble.  Taking responsibility.  Being washed clean.

That's about 12 posts worth right there, if I were to do each of those thoughts any justice at all.  In due time, I guess...