Kids Keep Things Interesting

Of course we have been discussing Christmas a lot lately and the true reason for the season.  Caleb has taken these discussions to heart and has posed some difficult questions for me to answer as he wonders about God:

• "Mommy, if Jesus is God, how could He be in Heaven and on earth as a baby at the same time?"
• We were reading a book about creation and he asked, "How can God speak and it just happens?"  This question came after he tried saying, "Make a toy truck!" and it didn't appear in front of him.  He was a little disappointed and when he asked why it didn't work I had to inform him He wasn't God.
• We were talking about the soon-to-be arrival of baby Anna and told Caleb we might cry when she was born just like we had when he was born, but that they would be tears of joy and not sadness.  A few days later we were watching the movie "The Nativity" as a family and trying to explain to the kids everything that was happening in the show.  Near the end I looked over at Caleb and saw tears in his eyes.  Thinking he was hurt, I quickly asked him what was wrong.  "Nothing Mommy," he replied.  "I"m crying happy tears because baby Jesus was born."

Today we realized our kids may have a different slant on things after growing up in a foreign country on the edge of the rainforest.  Jael and Dan were looking at animal pictures and she was naming them off.  She didn't have much trouble with the Macaw parrot, but she couldn't remember what a horse was.  (I can't really remember the last time we saw one here.)  We took a walk together and Jael started to sing a song she had made up.  She often does this, and although all the words may not be intelligible it's cute to hear her little voice.  When I asked her the name of her made up song she quickly aswered it was called "I am a Gringo".