Kaeta has been asking “Why?” questions a lot lately. This week I took her with me to the grocery store, and while we were walking through the store, out of nowhere, she asked, “Why do people have to die?”
I don’t know what prompted that question, but she seemed genuinely troubled. I picked her up and sat her in the cart in front of me and talked to her as we walked. I told her that we weren’t made to die, and I asked her if she remembered what Adam and Eve did. “Disobeyed,” she said. So I told her before that, nobody had to die, but when they disobeyed, they broke things between people and God. But because He loves us, God made a way for us to live again after we die through Jesus, so even though we have to die, it’s not forever.
(If that last paragraph seems rambly, imagine trying to come up with it off the cuff — it’s a tough one!)
That answer seemed to take the sting out of it for her. She thought about it for a minute. She looked up at me, very thoughtfully. And then she said,
“Why do we have to buy shredded cheese?”
That one was a little easier! I told her, “because Mommy wrote it on the list.” Then she told me that “two plus two equals four!” Who can fathom the mind of a child?
Soooo funny!