Riley is getting older and starting to ask questions about God and faith and it's fun and exciting to watch him process what we learn at home and church and why we go to church and how believing in God affects everything we do.
For a few days now, I've been trying to plan some fun and meaning activity to do with the kids on Good Friday to be able to connect them to the amazing and life-giving hope we have because Jesus died on the Cross for us. As we were talking about Good Friday earlier in the week, Riley asked "Does Jesus die every Friday?" Hmmm... We have more talking to do... :) but I love the honest and literal understanding and I wanted some activity to explore that a little more. But each idea I read either sounded above or below Riley and up until the afternoon of Good Friday, I had no idea what we were going to do to set this day apart from other Fridays.
So as we were getting ready to head out to the park after quiet time, Ryan and I decided to just read the story from the kids' Bible. So we got back and Ryan read. Riley listened quietly (which is a success in and of itself!), while Ava fed me her apple and did "cheers!" with our water glasses. As we were talking about the reason that Jesus died was to save us from going to hell, Riley was engaged. As soon as we started talking about hell, he started crying. We told him that if we believe that Jesus is God and ask Him to forgive us for all the bad things we've done and we choose to love Him, we will go to heaven. We literally watched him as he started to process this. It took several minutes and he needed time to think about it without us looking at him. So we said we would draw pictures about the story we read and about what Jesus means to us. As we did so, Riley said he wanted to talk more. He didn't understand why people would go to hell. And he was scared of hell. And we told him that people who don't love God, who choose not to love God go to hell, he seemed confused and said, "you mean some people don't want to love God?" And then he said, "But I love God." And we told him that was all it took, that Jesus died to give us this gift so that we could go to heaven and experience His love - and all we had to do was accept His gift and believe that He is the only God and then live like we love God, which means obeying and following Him.
As I was then putting dinner on the table, Riley said to me, "I already told Daddy this but, when I had my head under the pillow, I asked Jesus to live in my heart." And we told Riley that the angels were in heaven dancing and partying. Thank You Lord God.
What a reminder that it's not necessarily in the activities or the right presentation, but simply in the Word of God that will connect people to Him. We will continue to pray that as Riley and Ava grow older, that God will continually call them to Himself, because it is He who changes and softens our hearts.
I will never forget the look of joy on Riley's face as he realized that Jesus would die on a Cross so that he could live with God forever. And may I live with the tear-filled concern that Riley has, now still days later, for people who are not going to heaven. Thank You Lord for sacrificing Your Son, for taking our sin and our pain and our guilt on Yourself so that we would have Hope and Peace and Love and Joy and Eternity in Your Holy Presence. And as I heard on the radio today, why would God do this for us? Why come up with this extreme plan to save the souls of man?
Because it's just who God is.
