Someday Heaven

My long time family dog, Snowy, died last week after outliving most dogs of his breed.
He was almost 15 years old. I can vividly remember when we got him.

I was 16 years old, a junior in high school. My older sister Nicki had just left for college and my younger sister Crissy had just watched her Chinchilla die the week prior. In an attempt to comfort Crissy, my parents ventured to the pet store to get a new Chinchilla and, well, came home with Snowy, go figure.

Kaylee just loved Snowy and Wrigley did as well. That poor dog got more tugs and pulls and unwanted love from my child and my dog then he ever knew what to do with.

My parents were pretty upset when he passed away and were stunned at how sad they felt for "just a dog."
Snowy represented a time in our family's life when lots of changes had occurred.
Children grew into adults,
left the home,
moved away,
married,
had children (a child) of their own.
And the memories brought out a lot of the pain our family drudged through over the last 15 years.
He was always a constant, no matter what went on with the three of us girls, or my parents for that matter.

So as I sat down to explain to Kaylee that she would never see Snowy again, I saw confusion in her eyes. We told her that Snowy was sick and died, and that Mimi and Papa were sad.
She looked at me for a few minutes and asked
"why doesn't Jesus like Snowy?"
I tried not to laugh at her comment, especially since I saw a look of sincerity in her eyes. I realized this child has heard a lot about death through us losing 4 babies over the past 2 years. She knows about her cousin Julia living with Jesus and her siblings as well.

So I thought it was time to teach her about what we know of heaven and death. I was given a great book that has been so helpful in teaching Kay all about what the bible tells us about heaven. It is called "Someday Heaven," by Larry Libby.

I realized how impressionable this child truly is and how I wanted to instill truth in her at a young age.
So we opened the book together and have been reading through it ever since. It covers lots of questions that even most adults may not know the answers too.

It's so easy to dream about what we want heaven to be like and to teach our kids according to our hopes and desires.
It has been fun to watch her question life, death, and heaven.
I think it will instill a sense of reality and she will come to see that death is not something to fear, but rather to rejoice in the true life it can bring "someday" in "heaven.'