Little Man and I took a Mommy-and-son-only trip to Walmart this afternoon. Since the arrival of Little Lady, he doesn't get nearly as much one-on-one time with Mommy as he would prefer. So, leaving the Little Miss at home with Daddy to watch football offered us an opportunity to stroll the aisles of Wally-world sans diaper bag and car seat.
Incidentally, his first soccer game was this morning as well. I think this post would be remiss if I didn't at least mention the overwhelming cuteness of ten 3-year-olds running around (or standing around, depending on the moment!) in their beloved soccer get-up. Little Man had several friends on the team and, although he certainly isn't a star yet, he had a great time!
Anyway, the morning of soccer and the promise of a fun afternoon out with Mommy led him to ask some pretty serious questions. Always the observant one, we hadn't been driving long before I heard, "Mommy, why isn't the flag at the top of the pole?" We had discussed in the past that when the flag is flown half-mast, it's a sign of respect for someone who has gone to live with Jesus. So, naturally, he wondered who had gone there this time.
I am, if nothing else, a mom who loves to answer questions. I have a feeling it's in deference to my own mother who must have answered several hundred thousand questions from me during my childhood. All those just-wait-until-you-have-children moments have culminated in my having a kid who jumps off of everything possible (from his daddy with the history of jumping off the back of a transfer truck as a kid) and asks questions from sun up to sun down (definitely my fault!)! And I want to fuel his curiosity by answering the best way I know how. I wind up with "Because God made it that way" on a regular basis, but I try to survive a while before then.
So, how do you answer a 3-year-old who wants to know the "scary story" why the flags are half-mast today? My sister had to answer those difficult questions in the first few days following the 9/11 tragedy to a 3-year-old who's now a very grown-up 12-year-old. But now? What do you say about an event that your child will never remember but that you will never forget? For the record, I was sitting in a biochemistry class at UT Memphis when our professor came in and asked us if we'd heard what was going on. Since we'd been in class since 8 am, we didn't know what he was talking about. He went on to tell us all he knew about planes hitting the World Trade Center, all planes in American airspace being grounded, and talk of further terrorist attacks. This particular professor was known for having a flair for the dramatic, so my best friend and I just stared at each other mouthing, "Is he SERIOUS? Can't possibly be!" Once he'd told his story, he launched into the day's lecture. After all, we did have an exam coming up the next day.
As I relived all my emotions from 9 years ago, I started to tell my son about the "bad guys" who "broke some buildings" and "hurt a lot of people" with "guns and bombs." I left out the part about the airplanes, since he loves them so much. He, as expected, had a lot of follow-up questions. "Why did they want to hurt people?" "You know how we talk about how much God loves us? Well, God loves the bad guys too, but they didn't love Him back." The worst was when he asked if they were boys or girls. I told him that they were just boys, and that they didn't really like girls all that much. "If they saw S, would they shoot her?" My heart broke to think of my 3-year-old trying to defend his baby sister against such monsters.
After all the questions were done, I felt the need to remind the Little Man that God STILL loved the bad guys, even though they're in "time out" forever. That God wants us to pray for the bad guys that are still out there. And my baby...my precious, tender-hearted baby...said, "Okay, Mommy, let's do that now." And so we prayed for all the bad guys who are still in this world.
And so I discovered that God has given me a child who has a bigger heart than I could have ever imagined.
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