Impress Them on Your Children

Tonight was Tyler’s gymnastics class. This session of gymnastics, which started a couple weeks ago, is an hour later than his first series of classes. While we’re out later than I’d prefer, I’m finding the later time seems to be more conducive to meaningful chats with my son. In fact, after the last two times we’ve gone I’ve been reminded of Deuteronomy 6:6-9: “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” I haven’t purposefully gotten in the car and wondered what sermon I should preach to Tyler tonight. Rather, God has allowed our conversations to be gently steered to those moments when my inquisitive son is ripe to listen and learn. Thankfully He has made me mindful of these moments, too.

On our way to class tonight, Tyler broke the silence by asking, “Mom, where is Heaven?” Good question. How do you answer that?! For Christmas Tyler received a couple books (one from Grandma & Grandpa R and one from Aunt Barb) that talked about space, space shuttles, the moon, rockets, etc. I think that’s where this next question stemmed from: “Is it past space? If I took a rocket past the earth and through space, is Heaven on the other side? When I’m bigger I’m going to try to take a rocket to Heaven.” I don’t know how to explain where Heaven is, but I do know how to get there, and how wonderful to have the chance to share that with my son in such a casual way. I replied, “You can’t get to Heaven on a rocket. The Bible says the only way you can get to Heaven is through Jesus. He’s the only One that can take you there.” We talked about believing in Jesus (“I do believe!”), asking for forgiveness for the bad things we’ve done, and asking Jesus to live in our hearts and help us be good. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to “impress them on your children…when you walk [or drive] along the road.”

Today Tyler has been obsessed with the thought of becoming an “animal rescuer” when he grows up (in addition to being an astronaut, I guess). All day he’s talked about how he will rescue forest animals, how he will care for them, what kind of truck he’ll need to drive in the forest, where he’ll live, how Danielle will help him, how proud I’ll be, etc. He has talked about it ALL day long. After our talk about Heaven, he resumed his fantasy of becoming an animal rescuer. At one point in the conversation he was talking about the truck he’ll need to drive through the woods. He said it would have a flashing siren light on top so people would know he was coming. I asked why he would need the flashing light in the woods, but he wisely said, “I’ll need it on the road on my way to the woods.” Oh. Right. Then he said, “God will look down and see a little flashing siren in His hand.” I thought I knew where he was going with this, but I really wanted to hear him say it. I asked, “Really? Why is that?” I got the answer I was hoping to hear, “Because God is so big. He holds the earth in His hand.”