NINETEEN
JESUS REALLY LOVES THE CHILDREN
For months in late 2003 and early 2004, there was a certain set of things
that Colton seemed to fixate on. He talked about death and dying more
weird—really weird—for a kid his age. He also shared more about what
heaven looks like. These details came out in bits and pieces over dinner,
while he ran errands with Sonja and me, and during the general flow of life.
He saw the gates of heaven, he said: “They were made of gold and
there were pearls on them.” The heavenly city itself was made of
something shiny, “like gold or silver.” The flowers and trees in heaven were
“beautiful,” and there were animals of every kind.
No matter what new tidbits he revealed, though, Colton had one
consistent theme: he talked constantly about how much Jesus loves the
children. I mean that: constantly.
He would wake up in the morning and tell me: “Hey Dad, Jesus told me
to tell you, He really loves the children.”
Over dinner at night: “Remember, Jesus really loves the children.”
Before bed, as I helped him brush his teeth, “Hey, Daddy don’t forget,”
he’d say, garbling the words through a mouthful of toothpaste foam, “Jesus
said he really, really loves the children!”
Sonja got the same treatment. She had begun working part-time again
by then, and on the days she stayed home with Colton, he chirped all day
long about Jesus loving the children. It got so that it didn’t matter what Bible
story she or I read to our tiny evangelist at night, whether from the Old
Testament, the New Testament, about Moses or Noah or King Solomon,
Colton wrapped up the night with the same message: “Jesus loves the
children!”
Finally I had to tell him, “Colton, we get it. You can stop. When I get to
heaven, you are exonerated. I will tell Jesus you did your job.”
We might have grown weary of Colton’s nonstop message about Jesus’
love for kids, but it did transform the way we approached children’s