Mom, What Happens When We Pass Away

While we were driving in the car last night, our 4-year-old daughter asks,

"Mom, what happens when we pass away..."
There was more to her question, and she was pretty concerned and looked worried.

My husband looked at me with a concerned "I have no idea what to say" type of look.

While I thought of what to say, I prayed to God to give me wisdom in my answer.

I knew both of our daughters were listening and I wanted to make sure they knew they were safe. We have talked about this before, but this time the question was coming from her, and she was ready to really understand the answer. She needed an answer... An answer she could understand.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
"Give the butterfly a kiss goodbye!"
Then, the butterfly (she had also held as a caterpillar) takes it's first flutter into freedom and kisses her "goodbye"!

I then see visions in my memory of my daughters' beautiful, little hands holding baby caterpillars and later emerged butterflies from the same caterpillars. One of the blessings of homeschooling is to share the joy of learning and experiencing true understanding in real life.

This is the experience they needed to understand "passing away".

In the back of my mind, when we did this Life Cycle of the Butterfly study, I was also imagining  how I would later explain how our spirits change, as we emerge from our earthly bodies, and into our heavenly bodies.

Life Cycle of the Butterfly... Like the Life Cycle of Our Spirits

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Butterfly Celebration
Our butterflies fly free after we watched them grow from caterpillars, chrysalis to butterflies.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Butterflies fly free!



Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Feeding butterflies oranges before they fly away.



Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Feeding butterflies grapes and oranges.
Helping the butterflies get food before they fly away.

Honey, remember when I got you the baby caterpillars and you got to hold them?"

"Yes, they were soooo cute! I miss them."

Caterpillar
Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
The caterpillars crawled to the top, turned upside down, wiggled around and created their chrysalis right in front of our eyes!

 

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Here are the same caterpillars in the chrysalis. You can see that they are changing inside.

 

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Painted Lady chrysalis growing and changing over time.

 

We keep the chrysalis safe inside the butterfly pavilion. All of our caterpillars became butterflies! Yeah! We were so careful and made sure they were all safe while they grew into butterflies.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 

"That's how God feels about us. He just holds us in His hands and loves us."

"Well, remember when your little caterpillars starting wiggling around and created a chrysalis right in front of you? They were hanging upside down and we knew they were changing inside?"

"Yes, I miss them."

"Well, what happened after they got out of the chrysalis?"

"They became butterflies!"

"Yes, that is like what happens to us when we leave our bodies. When we believe in Jesus, we see His beautiful light and we can go to heaven. We are more beautiful in heaven. We feel free and we feel God's love. Our life in heaven is even longer than our life here. Wouldn't it be fun to fly like a butterfly?"

"Yes, but my favorite is the caterpillar. I love caterpillars."

"And that's okay, honey. That's how God feels about you. He loves you, but you need to know you are safe when you leave your chrysalis. Our body is like the butterflies chrysalis. Do you understand?"

"Yes, but I love caterpillars more."

That's okay, honey. You can love caterpillars. I will get you more baby caterpillars. Let's make a greenhouse with caterpillars and butterflies! That way the butterflies will have more baby caterpillars again and again. You can keep having more baby caterpillars."

(My husband looks at me with his eyes wide open.)

"Yeah! That is going to be so fun!" (Both daughters are so happy.)

"Wow, that was really good," my husband says in a shocked voice.

 

Free Heaven Jar Printable Activity for You From Mother Goose Time

Heaven Prayer Jar Activity

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Beautiful, little daughter... I love you.

Beautiful, little daughter... I love you.
Remember when we were saying a prayer for the family we were making this for and we did not even know God's light was shining down on us.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Precious

Mother Goose Time - Experience God, My Father's House and Heaven Bracelet Craft

Here is a fun Mother Goose Time Experience God heaven bracelet craft you can create at home or at school with your children.

This craft is part of the Experience God add on from Mother Goose Time.

First, we read the Bible Story - My Father's House
Based upon Luke 2:41-52 and John 13:31-14:1-7.

Mother Goose Time provides colorful posters with the text to read on the back, which is based on the above Bible verse.

Heaven Bracelet Craft

My daughters loved creating heaven bracelets. In the Bible there are details about heaven...

I began by asking: What might you see if you were in heaven? (Listen to their answers.)

• Heaven is surrounded by gates, each made with one pearl. (Each child held a pearl in her hands.)
• The roads of heaven are made of gold. (Each child is given a gold pipe cleaner.)
• As the children put white pearls onto the gold pipe cleaners you can sing together, Jesus is the Way. Mother Goose Time provides this song on a CD.

We talked about how a cross is like the key that opens heaven's gates. Christians who believe in him, repent and keep Him in their hearts will get into heaven. God, knows what we think about, and he knows what is in our hearts.

Supplies:

• White beads
• Gold pipe cleaners

Pray together: "Father God, thank you for being King of heaven and earth. Help me live on earth for you, so that I can live in heaven with you, too. In Jesus' name, Amen."

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