Jesus Loves Me, Part 2

“Do you know that Jesus loves you?” It’s a question I frequently ask my 8-year-old and am always reassured to hear him say yes. I’ve taught him for a very long time that that is the most important question he will ever be able to answer in his life. So it was very gratifying a couple of months back to be teaching his 1st and 2nd grade Sunday School class and ask the next question, “How do we know God loves us?” and get a correct answer…from my son. It was a leading question to introduce our memory verse, John 3:16: “For God so love the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” I got very good responses from 7- and 8-year-olds (especially considering I remember being stumped by this question when quizzed by a missionary in college…embarrassing!): “because the Bible says so!”, “because He created us!”, “because He loves us!” (classic response from this group!); then all of a sudden my buddy’s hand shoots up, I call on him, and he stuns me with an answer I had not be able to provide when I was at least 10 years his senior in college, “because he sent Jesus to die for us even though we were still sinners.” I promise you, friends, if I had prepped him in advance or even remembered having a conversation with him that was that direct in the recent past, I would not have been stunned into silence in front of a group of squirmy kids!

This wasn’t the first time I was reassured that my child has better teachers than me surrounding him and has something to teach even his oh-so-wise mother. About two years prior, my then six-year-old and I were in a precarious pinch with my sister, Brittany, behind the wheel of her SUV stuck in the snow on a mountain road. We’d been caught off guard in a snow storm while camping over Thanksgiving weekend, a great story in and of itself, and when trying to escape down the mountain roads found them less than passable. I was in a right panicked state as we slid closer to the edge of the road with my sister’s every attempt to move the vehicle. Finally in the midst of my panicked exclamations, I hear the voice of my up-to-this-point-silent buddy from the backseat, “Mom, can I ask you a question?”

“Of course, Buddy, what’s up?” (Trying to play it cool here.)

“If we die are we going to heaven?”

“Yes, Buddy, we are definitely going to heaven if we die.”

My little wise one turned back to my sister, the driver, and with a flick of the wrist said, “Alright, carry on.”

It took me a couple of days for me to realize how fully my kid had shown me up in that moment and demonstrated far more faith, hope, peace and confidence than I could pretend or muster in that moment. Once I really processed that and let it sink in, I’ve begun to understand the full implications of that and it has guided a lot of things in my life. Before my son taught me that in-the-moment lesson, I had a hard time understanding Paul’s statement, “To live is Christ but to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21) As it turns out, the worst thing that can happen here on earth (death), really isn’t a very bad thing after all.

Ethan and I talk about death now as a good thing that means we are done with our frail, earthly body, when God determines the work he has set before us has been accomplished here, and we get to go to our real home in heaven to be with Him. The fact that Ethan speaks so freely and hopefully about this fact is a really good thing because my son was very angry with God for a couple of years when he was grappling with the death of his uncle around the age of 3. It was very hard to see his hardened heart but I watched it slowly soften as Steve and I remained consistent with him and didn’t force scripture down his throat, but talked of how much Jesus loved him. It was that much more heartbreaking to see because prior to my uncle’s death I can remember more than once on quiet car rides hearing a soft sigh from my toddler’s lips followed by a reflective, “Ah, God loves me.” As a parent to go from that type of heartwarming reassurance to a very small child telling you that he “doesn’t want to hear about this God stuff” was difficult to say the least. In fact, that is a gross understatement, I was sick over it!

It may be hard to picture a 3, 4, 5 year old with a heart hardened toward God and it was even harder to see in the flesh but I know my son, his willfulness, his stubbornness. God made him that way for a purpose, His purpose; I’m sure it will serve Ethan and the kingdom well someday but in the meantime, as a parent, it comes with its challenges. For this reason, I know that my biggest focus in this life is making sure my son knows beyond a shadow of a doubt the answer to the question “do you know that Jesus loves you?” Because if he goes through life truly knowing the answer to that question in the deepest part of him there will be many other “big” questions in life for which the answer will be utterly insignificant in comparison.

And so, dear friend, I ask you, do you know that Jesus loves you?