Cars and Eternity

My parents were up last weekend. They had been visiting Silver Dollar City and decided to come up for a few days. It's so nice that they're retired now!

While my parents were here, Blane had several questions about death and heaven. I don't know if having visitors rekindled his interest in what happened to Grampy, but he asked me things like, "Will I die on the grass?" or made statements like: "Mom, you'll be old when you die." I answered as truthfully and comfortingly as I could.

Then one day, the conversation moved to heaven. Whether he brought up the topic of heaven on his own or asked a question, I can't remember. But when I told him that one day he'd get to live with God, he said, "No, I don't want to."

Now I perfectly remember thinking as a kid, I know I'm supposed to want to go to heaven, but it sounds really boring to sit around and sing all the time and be with God. I mean, am I going to get to do anything fun? The finer appreciation of God and living with Him came later, of course, but to a concrete thinking child, it's a tough thing to get excited about. I'm sure some version of that was bouncing around in his head. So I tried to make it more relevant for him. You'll have to take some theological license with me, but I couldn't think of a better way to express eternal joy than this:

"Blane, in heaven, you'll get your own room with lots of toys."

He looked unimpressed. "I don't like toys; I only like cars."

Of course. "Well, God made you and He knows how much you love cars. So you'll have your own room with lots and lots of cars to play with."

He seemed to digest that a bit more. Hmmm, maybe that won't be so bad. That ended the end-of-life questions from him. For now.

And God, in His Heaven, smiled down and had a little laugh, I think. I'm sure He's preparing the most glorious "car" Blane can imagine.