No Lies

"Are you going to die soon?" my four year old daughter asked me while trying on a pink baby dress, twirling.

Her expression serious, quickly turned light and sparkling like the dress she was wearing. "You are never going to die, right?"

She hadn't given me a chance to answer. It was as if she didn't want to know what I would say. With her questions more like statements she said to me, "We will never never die, right, Mama?" 

She had found a bin of her baby outfits that morning, ones I had saved as mementos. I told her that her daddy used to hold her in those sleepers and onsies. Maddi's eyes widened, making it impossible to hide her smile.

Death is real to her. So real she hopes we can escape it. I'm sad today that I can't lie to her. All I say is, "We won't die until it's our time."

I don't think she heard me. She was busy digging in the baby clothes bin. I chose not to repeat myself. Some truths are too hard to explain...especially the ones I don't fully understand.

Comments

[Roads]

My daughter surprised me during a game of I-Spy, as we were driving home one day when she was around four years old.

"Something beginning with 'D'," she said. "Someone who hasn't died yet."

Out of the mouths of babes, surely we hear the truth.

[Shelly McMahon Linskey]

I used to tell my kids that most people live a long life and die old and happy when they asked me that question - hard to explain to them why their Dad had died so young. Their fears about losing the other parent are so real...even my almost 11 year old does not like it when I am away for very long. We are their anchor now and for me to have the strength to hold on when they need it most, I have to be attached to the Jesus ship!