Just last week we were reading the passage in Luke where the Sadducees are trying to trap Jesus with questions about the resurrection. As we were reading Anwen’s eyes began to glaze over. I knew just by looking at her she was following her own thoughts. I let her, hoping that the Holy Spirit was teaching her. (I didn’t know I was the one getting the teaching, but more about that later.)
The “water” part of this day was to draw or paint a picture of heaven. After we finished I set her about the task. I watched as the picture began to reveal itself. She is very verbal and talked the whole time, not to me, mind you.
At one point she exclaimed, “Hey, I’m in here.”
And that’s when she traced her hands.
Her hands touching eternity.
Her hands in the thin place where heaven becomes earth.
Her hands in the presence of the Father.
The Father met her flanked by angels and our newly deceased cats.
She knew that in the presence of the Trinity there is glowing, thus the glitter.
Bottles of glitter. She couldn’t get enough. (Our Basset Hound who usually eats anything that falls from the table, including Monopoly pieces, decided glitter is not for her.)
We talked afterwards about heaven being any place that God is. That heaven is both now and later.
I asked her, “When is God with you?”
“Well,” she said, “We work together when I play piano. And when I’m swinging. I can feel the Holy Spirit when I’m swinging.”
My kid, she teaches me.
I think I’ll go dust the snow off the swing set and swing awhile, heaven’s waiting.