My grandfather died this morning.  I haven’t had a lot of time to process or consider his passing.  Myself, my wife and children have been sick for the last couple of days and somewhat distant from the rest of the family.  I certainly don’t want them getting what we’ve had.  This bout with the stomach bug hit us all at the same time.  It was bad enough that I had tell my five year old, “sorry, you’re on your own.  You know where the bathroom is.”  Then, I got that telephone call that I was wishing wouldn’t come…”your papaw passed away at 6:40 this morning.”

I didn’t tell my daughter right away.  She overheard my wife and I talking about funerals and cemeteries.  I think she knew what was going on.  We have tried to help her understand death by talking about it prior to this point.  I’m still not sure that she really understands.  I got the chance to spend some time alone with her this evening and talk to her about what was going on.  I told her frankly that Papaw had died.  I’ve noticed that a lot of people shy away from using the words “die, dead or death” preferring instead words like “passed away or gone on.”  I don’t want to confuse the child and want to be clear about what has happened.  She told me that she was very sad.  I told her that I was very sad too and that we would miss him terribly.  Then she asked me “why did Papaw die?”  I explained to her that he was very sick.  Then she wanted to know if I was going to die and if she was going to die.  How do you explain death to a kindergartener?  We talked about how death is the result of sin and how everyone has sinned.  She didn’t like hearing that, frankly, neither do I.  Then we talked about Jesus and how He never sinned and died in our place.  We talked about Heaven and how Papaw is there now because he trusted Jesus.  We also talked about how we would see Papaw again in Heaven if we trust Jesus.  She seemed satisfied.  I hope she understands or will understand.  It helped me to understand just a little bit better by stripping away all of the theological rhetoric and presenting the good news of Jesus Christ on the level of a kindergartener.  We prayed together and asked Jesus to tell Papaw that we love him, miss him and hope to see him again.

Technorati Tags: Death, Good News, Gospel, Heaven

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