I had three very strange conversations with Amie today.
- Part one
Out of the blue (we were washing hands) she said:
– Pooh Bear is very fluffy so he will never die again.
– So you think if you’re fluffy you can’t die?
– Yes. But I am not fluffy, so I am going to die. Some day. And you are not fluffy, so you are going to die too. We’ll lie down together and lie next to each other and our crosses will be next to each other. And the body goes away, right? And only our bones are left over.
- Part two
Later I asked:
– Which crosses were you talking about?
– Like Jesus’ cross.
– But we don’t usually die on the cross like Jesus. We die when we’re very sick or very old, or in an accident. It could be we go to sleep and just don’t wake up.
– When we lie down? We can die when we lie down, or when we’re holding something, or even when we talking?
– Yes.
– They say you can come back after you die.
– Oh, like Jesus you mean? Usually though when we die we don’t come back. Jesus was an exception.
– No, all of us.
– O yes, some people believe that. I don’t know, though.
- Part three
Ten minutes later I asked if we should put some music on. She asked:
– Do we have any Jesus music?
– How do you mean?
– Music with Jesus?
– We don’t have a recording of Jesus, but there is music about Jesus. You want that?
– Yes, Jesus music please.
~
Later I was on the phone with DH, who was working late, and mentioned this strange conversation.
– Ah, he said, I think I know why.
Turns out that yesterday, when I was at my pottery class, Amie had said that her Pooh Bear (her stuffed bear) was dead.
– He died, she had said.
DH had explained that Pooh Bear couldn’t die, because he was just a toy bear, and not alive to begin with. He had said:
– He’s just made of fluff. He doesn’t even have any blood.
– Do we have blood?
And that had lead to a conversation about the body.
Aha. “Made of fluff” and “fluffy”… It’s the mind of the three-and-a-half-year-old!
It is so interesting to talk with young children about their thinking on abstract concepts. Often children are afraid of death because they don’t understand it. She seems to be OK with the idea. It’s funny how a conversation about Pooh led to a conversation about Jesus.