Heaven for Kids

How many times do I say to myself, "If only I had my camera with me!"

On Thursday night Paul and Stephen took Joel along to worship practice at church until I could pick him up at 7:30. To occupy our boy, Paul grabbed a new book from our shelf. It's called Heaven for Kids by Randy Alcorn. It's about three-quarters of an inch thick. The reason I bought it was to read it as a reference for the questions that are sure to arise. Never did I imagine that Joel would read it all by himself before I did!

But lo and behold, when I arrived at practice to pick Joel up, he had his nose in this book. Paul smiled at me and said, "Do you know he's read 30 pages since we left home?" (We live 14 minutes from church.) A couple days later I asked Joel if he was still reading it. He had read over 100 pages.

Lest you be overly impressed, I must tell you our short conversation before bedtime last night. Again, I wished I'd had a camera. Joel was deep into the book between Paul and me on our bed, while each of us had our own books.

I paused, seeing that he was nearing the end, and asked, "So, Joel, what have you learned about heaven?"

"Nothing," he replied. "I don't learn or remember anything when I read. I just read."

Paul leaned close to Joel and whispered in his ear, "You're supposed to read for comprehension."

To which Joel said, "That's no fun."