Toddler Theology.

This weekend I am crashed in Chicago for my last ever weekend class, or class at all for that matter. Hooray! The trip in also gives me a good excuse to stay with and hang out with my beloved Chicago family. M was not even two when I began watching her over two years ago, and now she is nearing four. Jeesh it makes me feel old. Tonight, following a Dora the Explorer video and some light reading, we engaged ourselves in a theological discussion.

Some of M's questions included:

- I know that I was made by God, mommy and daddy. But I don't get it, who made God?

- If Jesus was God's son, then what about Joseph? Why did Jesus have two daddies?

- Will I die and go to heaven right away when I turn 60, or does it happen when I am even older than that, like when I am 45 or 29?

- Can I bring E (her one-year-old sister) to heaven with me? And can I sit next to you when I get there? (Okay kid, melt my heart, for real)

As we sat and talked, me stumbling to explain God's role in creating Jesus without unraveling the Trinity to a three-year-old, I was struck by M's ability to get it. In her little mind she knows already that God's work is so clear and yet so inevitably full of mystery. Because that, my friends, is exactly what I think it's all about.

And just for the record, yes Miss M, we can all sit together in heaven.