I never cease to be amazed by the shear amount of questions my children can generate. And that's just during lunchtime. I see either one of two things happening in the near future: 1) I need to eat lunch with a dictionary in one hand and a complete, unabridged encyclopedia in the other, or 2) I need to not eat lunch at the same time as my children.
Since I'm typically the only adult in the room with them, they naturally think I have all the answers to the millions of questions that seize their tiny brains at any given moment. I tend to be either overwhelmed by the magnitude of the question, stunned by the depth of the question, or trying to suppress a grin because of the innocence of the question. And to think my sweet proteges are adding to their brain cells based solely on the information I provide while eating our peanut butter sandwiches...it's enough to make me want to go back for my master's degree...okay, not that bad - but it does bring me to my knees and remind me that I MUST rely on God for all my answers. I'm shaping the way they see their world. What an awesome responsibility!
All that to say...here are the latest, greatest questions I have received (or at least the ones I can remember)...
Bennett asks very nonchalantly, "Mom, do all kids grow up to be Mommy's and Daddy's?" Whew - easy answer. "Most of them do, Honey." But that didn't seem to satisfy his curiosity, so he tried to rephrase his question, "No, Mom, I mean, do some kids die before they can grow up to be a Mommy or Daddy?" Okay, that's a whole other ballgame. Does he really need to know the harsh reality of this world? Sensing that he wants to dig deep and know the honest truth, I tell him, "Well, unfortunately, some kids go to heaven before they get the chance to grow up....But you won't be sad cuz you'd be in heaven with Jesus; only the people left would be sad cuz we wouldn't get to see you till it was our turn to get to heaven. But you don't have to worry about that right now Honey, okay?" He seemed satisfied with my answer and assured me that nobody would have to worry about him. He said, "...okay, good, cuz when I get to heaven, I going to go ask God, 'God, can you make me a superhero now so I can go back and help people and they won't be sad?' and then nobody will be sad, Mom." Hmmm...I'm still shocked that I never saw the whole 'superhero angle' coming.
Next it's Gavin's turn to stump me. Out of nowhere he asks, "Mom, when all the people are gone off the earth, will it be extinct?" What???? I don't know that I can wrap my brain around that question. So like any good philosopher, I ask him a question in return. "Honey, where will all the people go?" As if I hadn't seen the obvious, he patiently replied, "Mom, they'll all be in heaven." Ohhh - I see. All I can manage to say upon opening my mouth is, "Honey, did you read that in Narnia?" "Ya, it said......" Thank God!!! He saved me yet again. This line of questioning had indeed stemmed from reading the Narnia series. Thankfully, I could use my ignorance to my advantage here since I have no recollection of the story.
And lastly, after watching a movie that featured a two-headed dragon, Bennett wanted to know, "Mom, if dragons have fire in them, why don't they burn up?" Thankfully, that just involved a little bit of chemistry and I was able to adeptly explain that the fire wasn't actually fire until it came out of their mouth's, it was just a gas inside them.
My job is done for the day. I have fielded every question that has come my way (even the one about how to make lemonade that I thought should have been a simple answer) and have lived to tell about it....simple questions - in our house, that is an oxymoron.
