A Child’s Take on Heaven

After my mother passed, comforting words came from the most unexpected source, my four year old nephew (a child who has not been raised in church and who had not really been explained Heaven).

Jake sighed and smiled from his car seat on the ride home after we left the funeral home and said "Grandma is in Heaven now with the Angels in a special house."

We asked how he knew and he responded that he could see her there and she was in a good place so we didn't need to worry because she didn't have her old body and was no longer in pain, instead she had wings and an Angel body.

The first time he said this we weren't sure what to think. We wondered how he knew about Heaven and if maybe there was truth in what he was seeing or perhaps it was a dream he was confusing with reality.

Since then Jake brought it up on another occasion or two.

One of the conversations that stood out most went as follows:

Jake: "I can see Grandma. She always watches over me. She will come back as a baby but by that time I will be an Angel again."

When asked he knew this and he said he just did. He then went on to explain that God tells us when it is time to come down while we are in Heaven. He takes us to a special circle where he says it's time again to take the "leap of faith" and that we have to trust him to come back down, but some angels never come back down. He said he remembered Heaven and that he KNOWS (the conviction in his voice as he explained this was astounding) his Grandma will be back but for now she is his Angel.

We aren't sure where this is all coming from but we are grateful to find some comfort in a time and world where there are more questions than answers as to what comes next and whether our beloved mother is in a better place now (a term often thrown at us).