Broken Things

Yesterday I went on a hot date with my little girl, Rainy. You can catch more details about where we went and what we did here on Tasha's blog. But let me share a quick highlight.

During our hike on one of the trails at Reedy Creek Park, our journey took us to the ruins of a stone house built in the 1700s. I must have seemed cold and heartless to the fact that these nice people's house was destroyed, because Rainy reiterated over and over to me how sad of a situation it was. After many failed attempts at trying to explain to my worried daughter why the house was destroyed (and already having failed at trying to explain why there were "frozen"animals in the nature center [--see pic below--] and how they got to be frozen in the first place), I finally clued in and realized that one of those teachable moments was staring me in the face. Usually I'm clueless to these moments, but yesterday the Lord was gracious and helped me see it for what it was. So, I tried another approach. It went something like this:

Rainy: That's sad that that house is broken. What happened to it?

Daddy: Well, Rainy. It just got too old and it fell down.

Rainy: That's sad that things get old. But what happened to the people who lived there?

Daddy: Well, they probably died.

Rainy: Oh, that's sad that they died. Why did they die?

Daddy: Well, that's the way this world is, Rainy. Things are born and things die.

Rainy: Oh, that's really sad.

Daddy: Yes, it is, but you know what? One day God is going to make everything new again!

Rainy: He is?

Daddy: Yea, He is. Everything will be brand new. And all the bad things about the world will be good again. You know how your Nanna and Grandpa and Paw Paw and Nena are getting really old? And they get sick alot?

Rainy: Yea.

Daddy: Well, one day God is going to give them brand new bodies. Isn't that cool?

Rainy: Yea!

Daddy: He's going to give all of us brand new bodies and we won't have boo-boos anymore and we won't get sick, and there won't be poison ivy (she was worried about poison ivy from the moment I first mentioned it on the hike--almost to the point of terror--way to go me for ever bringing it up!). And remember when I fell off the ladder the other day and got lots of boo-boos?

Rainy: Yea.

Daddy: Well, when God gives us our new bodies, that won't happen anymore. We can fall and not get hurt. And you won't even scrape your knee when you fall.

Rainy: I won't?

Daddy: Nope.

Rainy: Oh, that's cool, Dad. That's really cool ... Oh, Dad, let's go find the white flower and red leaf that's on the map.

Daddy: O.K. Rainy.

(2 hours later, we pull into our driveway and Zeke comes running out)

Zeke: Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! Wainy, Wainy, Wainy!

Rainy: Hey Zeke!

Zeke: Hey Wainy! I missed you!

Rainy: I missed you too, Zeke. Guess what Zeke? We saw lots of dead animals and a broken house!

Zeke: Oh, that's sad!

Rainy: Yea, it was, Zeke, but, but, one day God is going to make everything new again and bring everything back to life and fix everything that's broken!

Zeke: Yay!