Does Jesus make pee?

These are the kinds of questions I have been getting from Callum lately.....my dad and mom are no doubt satisfied beyond belief at the level and intensity of questions my little guy is offering; I guess I was (and, in many ways, still am) the most amazing question asker of them all when I was younger. As they say, payback is a ......

But it is amazing to see the way language progresses in little kids, from Maira learning new words each day, to her 'making up' words for things she wants; trying to decipher WHY she uses certain words for certain things is indeed interesting. For example, she will point at the fridge or cabinet and say "uh-naaaa! uh-naaaa!" and that means she 'wants' something. Perhaps she is saying "another" in her mind? I think so.....

Callum, partly imbued from his latest book craze of "Amos and Boris, and partly from his time at church, has been asking a lot of questioins about "death" and dying lately. At church, he hears all the time about how Jesus has "died" for our sins or how, in baptism, we "die" and are reborn in Christ, etc. In Amos and Boris, we see a story about a seagoing mouse who experiences a storm and becomes shipwrecked, saying to himself at one point "I wonder what it will feel like to die out here all alone" before, suddenly, he is recued by Boris, a friendly whale. The result of both of these things is Callum asking a lot of questions about "dying." I am certain that he has no clue what death actually means,, but I think he is getting curious.

The other day, he wanted to see a picture of me when I was a little boy. I went downstairs and showed him a picture of me with my Nana Goldsmith--my "mee-mee," as I told him. "You were really cute daddy!!" he said (smart kid....). Then he proceeds with "hey we havent gone to see Nana Goldsmith in a while...." That is because, as I told him, Nana Goldsmith died a long time ago when I was little, and now she is in heaven with Jesus. "Oh," he answered. "But I'm not dying right?" And then he proceeded with his other rapid fire questions: "My Rudolph isnt dead, right?" and "I dont want my puppy and my Rover and you and mommy and Maira and Lupine to die, okay?" How do you respond to these kinds of things? A cliche parenting question no doubt.

Often, our response to these kinds of queries turns toward church, and how Gold takes care of us and made the world, etc. Then the REAL fun starts: Did God make my purple nutcracker? (purple is his favorite currently). Did Jesus make my friend shrimp and my strawberries? Does Jesus make my pee when I go pee? Then he delves deeper into the whole "Christmas" and "manger scene" scenario (he asks, daily, if today is Christmas Eve yet...) asking "If Jesus was born in the manger, then where is he now?" When I explain how NOW he is in heaven where he lives, Callum retorts: "In heaven, is Jesus still a baby up there or is he a daddy (daddy is Callumish for "grown up man")." Well, I answer, when he went to heaven he was 33 years old. "But is he STILL 33, or does he keep getting older every year? Is he an old man now?"

I think the kid is smarter than me and is just messing with me.

Sometimes I think I just prefer the "this?" kinds of questions Maira asks when she points at things....haha