While putting Eisley and Cyrus to bed tonight, I asked them if they were glad that I was back from Charlotte. “Yeah!” they shouted.

“Did you miss me?”

“Yeah, we missed you.” Then Cyrus asked, “Daddy, why were you in Charlotte?”

“I had to go to Charlotte because my Uncle David died,” I replied.

“Why did he die?” Cyrus asked.

“Well,” I stalled, searching for an explanation that would satisfy a 4-year-old. “He got old and sick, and then he died.”

“Did he get sick because he ate lots of junk food?” he asked. Mommy is clearly brainwashing him.

“No,” I said, “sometimes we just get old and sick, and our bodies can’t live anymore.”

“Why did he get old and sick?” Eisley asked.

Not wanting to scare her about death or say something stupid like, “Oh Eisley, we all get old and sick and then we die, even Mommy and Daddy”–that would not have gone over well–I searched for an answer but couldn’t think of one. So, instead, I said, “Oh, honey, sometimes people just get old and sick.”

Then Cyrus asked the clincher. “Did he have Jesus in his heart when he got sick?” What do you say to that?

“Yes he did,” I said. But to be honest, I’m not very confident of that.

“Will Jesus heal his body?” Cyrus asked.

“Someday he will,” I told him.

“I want to go to heaven with Jesus and God and everyone!” Cyrus said, excitedly.

“I want to go to heaven because Jesus loves everybody!” Eisley shouted.

So then we all prayed; Eisley first, then Cyrus, then Daddy. We thanked God for our friend Sophia, for almond butter sandwiches, and for bringing Daddy safely home from Charlotte. And they asked me to sing “Jesus Loves Me”, which of course I did; and for the first time I can ever remember, they both joined in. And we sat there in the dark, singing about how much Jesus loves us. I choked back tears as I thought about Heaven, and how this moment was a little, priceless taste of eternal life.