Jesus In His Hawt

Generally speaking, The Little Buddy takes a couple naps a week. He almost always has a quiet time and sometimes it happens to end with him waking up groggy. Today was one of those days. He padded down the stairs and found me in the kitchen.

"Hode me," he whispered. The dishwasher was open, dishes were in an unfinished state of being put away. I sat down on the floor, leaned my back against the stove, and pulled him into my lap. We snuggled there for a few minutes. I thought about kissing his head and ending our cuddle time. The dishwasher was open, for heaven's sake.

But the "cleaning and scrubbing can wait 'til tomorrow" line went through my head and I pulled my baby-child closer. We made quiet small talk. I don't remember what it was about. Eventually, I decided to discuss preschool level theology.

"Hey, where's Jesus?" I asked him.

"In heaven," he replied.

"Did He die?"

"Yes."

"But then what?"

Matthew replied, "He woes again."

"And He's where, now?"

"In heaven. I aweady said."

"Do you know He can be in your heart?" I asked.

"He aweady is in there," Matthew said.

"Oh! Did you ask Him to come in?"

"No. Cuz there is no woom," he informed me.

"Oh, there's always room for Jesus," I explained.

We talked about the cross and sin and resurrection. I told him that if Jesus came into his heart, he'd have to let him be the boss of his life forever. We discussed Heaven and we discussed separation from God. "I want Jesus to be in my hawt!" he told me.

Suddenly, from the top of the stairs came a bigger boy's voice, "Yes! Oh I am not gonna miss this!" The six-year-old flew down the stairs and crashed into the kitchen.

I told Matthew that all he had to do was pray and tell Jesus that he wanted Him in his heart and he wanted Him to be his boss. Because, well, he's not quite four and "boss" makes a lot more sense than "Lord" to a three-year-old. Matthew started to cry.

"I don't know how."

So I prayed and Matthew repeated after me.

Later, with a smile from ear to ear, he made several phone calls in which he informed people, "I invited Jesus into my hawt and He is going to stay fo-evah."

Do I think he has complete understanding of redemption and salvation? Absolutely not. Do I think that we will continue to explain it all to him so that he grows and learns and understands at age appropriate levels? Absolutely.

And I'm sure glad that I decided the dishwasher could wait.