4 Year Old Theology

Here are some of the things that made me laugh this week. I hope you get a smile or chuckle from these thoughts out of the mouth of my sage little preschooler.

Does anyone else find it a strange coincidence that kids get extra philosophical at bed time? Bed time is also the one time every day where my son will willingly beg to drink water without me giving him a lecture about how it’s healthy and important. I will spend all day long plotting ways I can humanely force water down that kid’s throat, but when it comes time for him to go to sleep, he must have fresh water so he can, and I quote, “Be healthy, Mom!” Oh, but I have majorly digressed.

Bed time also seems to bring out the spiritual side in Dash. After four years, we are starting to see some real progress in his knowledge and understanding of God and the Bible. Here are some words of wisdom from our little theologian. 🙂

This week’s theme was mostly heaven-based.

Conversation 1: The initial question he asked was something about how we go to heaven. We’ve talked about this one before, but that night he wanted to know specifically what part of us goes to heaven. I try my best to be honest and on his level, so I explained that there’s a part of us inside our bodies called our spirits and that was the part that goes to heaven to live with God. From there on, we only got deeper. 😉

Dash: “Mom, if our hearts are the parts of us that go to heaven, then where do they live?”
Me: “We get brand new bodies for them to live in that are even more awesome than the ones we have on earth.”
Dash: “Us get new bodies?!?”
Me: “Yep!”
With a very thoughtful look on his face, he pauses for a second as if trying to take it all in.
Dash: Will we have bottoms on our new bodies?

Conversation 2 (A couple of nights later): He brought up the topic of heaven again. He was excited at the thought of new bodies and seeing God. We continued dialoguing for several minutes about what heaven is like, and pride for my sweet little boy’s excitement on this topic kept swelling up in my mama heart.

Then the conversation took a turn in a direction I didn’t see coming.

Dash: “Mom, heaven is orange!”
Me: “Heaven is orange, huh?”
Dash: “Yeah.”
Me: “What makes you say that?
Dash: “Because the dinosaur on my pillow case is orange.”

And then we were done with that conversation because I needed desperately to go in the other room so I could laugh my head off.

Conversation 3:

The other night, in his play time, the blanket found itself draped over one shoulder so that it appeared he was wearing a sash. He looked down, noticed the position of the blanket and exclaimed with a great deal of excitement over his unplanned wardrobe change, “Mom! Me look like Jesus!”

Conversation 4:

After class in church tonight, Dash proudly carried his fruit of the spirit color sheet to the car and informed me he had a great night at church.

Me: “That’s awesome! What did you learn about the fruits of the spirit?”
Dash: “Be kind and eat fruit and it will help your headache go away.”

None of us are ever done learning about God. I’m finding it incredibly refreshing to listen to a four-year-old sort through the facts that he’s learned so far in his short life and draw some funny conclusions while he grows. I hope you enjoyed them, too.