“I Don’t See Jesus”

By: Joy Frystak

      Our two oldest daughters frequently will ask us questions about Jesus and heaven. Innocent questions like, “Does Jesus slide on rainbows?” and “where is heaven?” We told them that Jesus sometimes gets to slide on rainbows and that heaven is above the clouds. Both of these answers seemed to suffice, UNTIL……

      Recently we took a vacation that involved flying in an airplane. Because we are a family of 5, we were split with myself seated with our youngest and our middle child and my husband across the aisle with our oldest. Both Reagan and Veronica were given the window seats to keep them occupied for the duration of our flight. We were smoothly climbing to our 30,000 feet when we passed through some clouds. Once we reached above the clouds, simultaneously, Reagan asks, “is this heaven?” and Veronica states, “I don’t see Jesus.” My husband and I both turned to one another with looks of horror on our faces. Of ALL the times our children have had the opportunity to listen to us, they chose the Jesus on rainbows and heaven above the clouds to actually HEAR us. The couple in front of my seat started laughing as well as the couple in front of my husband. The man sitting in front of my husband, turned to me and said, “WELL?” 

      I did what any parent would have done and said that there was another set of clouds and THAT was where heaven was. And I also threw in, “just because you can’t see Jesus doesn’t mean he isn’t there.” This seemed to appease all parties that had become involved and everyone went back to their respective magazine, book, and coloring page. Since then, there have been several more conversations regarding where Jesus lives and what he looks like.  We haven’t changed how we answer these questions however, we assure them that he stays in our hearts and is always with us, “But mom, how does he get inside of our hearts?”  Oh brother………………….