Questions about God

Ryan has been asking many questions lately about God and heaven and I thought it was important to record some of his questions to remember what his insight/understanding was at this age (3 years, 1.5 months). Some of them make me think really hard about how to explain it to a toddler (telling the truth but not making him worried or scared), some make me want to laugh out loud, and some, honestly, make ME sad, but I know how important it is for him to learn and understand how much God loves him and that we don't have to be scared of heaven. It has definitely stretched me as a parent (sometimes I wish I could just say "Ask Grandpa," he's the one with the doctorate in this!) but I am also grateful that he is curious and that we are able to plant the seeds of truth in his young mind!

Here are some of the questions he's asked:

• What color is God?
• What does God look like? Why can't we see God?
• When I get to heaven, I'm going to give God a big hug and a kiss!
• Where is heaven? Is it far far away? Who is going to be there? What do we eat there?
• Are there kids there to play with? (When I told him he probably won't go to heaven until he's very old, he got sad and said he wants to grow smaller and smaller so he can just be a boy in heaven and play with the other kids. I got sad trying to explain that yes, sometimes there are kids in heaven.)
• What kind of toys does God have? Does God have a nativity set? 
• After we are dying and go to heaven, can we come back to my house? (He got a little scared thinking about what "forever" meant. He also talks about dying but I don't think he actually knows what that means.)
• Is heaven way up high in the sky?
• But if we are in the sky, how do we stay up there? (He wants to know what we'll stand on since there is no "earth" to stand on)
• When we go to Florida in an airplane and we go way up high in the sky, then will we see God?
• Are you and me and Daddy and Nika all going to go to heaven? I don't want to go there unless you go with me!
• Are Abbie and Wade and Saylor and Milo going to be in heaven too?
• After I told him that a lot of people don't die until they are very old, he said, "Oh, is Great-Grandpa going to die soon?" (This made me sad, but I think that is just the oldest person he could think of. But, it gave me a chance to tell him about Great-Grandma who is already in heaven who died just a few weeks before he was born.)
• Will God play tackle with me?

Here are a few "truths" that he seems to repeat to himself or me. We've talked about many things, but these seem to be his basic understanding and the things that have "stuck" so far:

• God made everything.
• We don't have to be scared because God is always with us.
• Don't worry, God will protect us.
• God loves us and will take care of us.
• When we die, we get to go to heaven.
• Everyone who loves God will be in heaven.

We've talked about Jesus being God's son and have read a few Easter books so we haven't skipped over the cross entirely, but for now, I'm more concerned with getting him to understand the difference between God and Batman than explaining the trilogy.