A Little Child Shall Lead Them

This is Aidan's Sunday School artwork. It won't win him a scholarship to art school, but for us, it's full of comfort and innocent faith. I'm not sure what the lesson was that morning, but when he came out of his class, he proudly showed us this. It's his view of Heaven and he wanted us to have it. It's now hanging on the kitchen wall.
Let me explain it to you. Starting from the bottom, he's got the clouds, then the gates of Heaven, complete with the haloed angels standing guard. Above the gates, three more flying angels. At the top, various planets and stars and things floating in space-- a couple of moons, Saturn with a ring, even a heart-shaped planet.

But right in the middle, the one with the big smile on his face and the splayed fingers, is Unkie JJ. (No halo.)

Truly, there's no denying it, he looks as happy as can be, floating there among the angels.

Though none of us here yet know what happens after this life, we have the words of Jesus to reassure us. "I go to prepare a place for you that you may be where I am...if it were not so I would have told you." Those powerful words have held us together on many a dark night in the past year.
Aidan, too, has held us together. We would never intentionally give such a burdensome job to a child, but Aidan's love-filled heart has overflowed on us over and over again, washing away our tears. He's a little gift from God keeping us rooted in the present when we were ready ourselves to fly away to Heaven.

Matt 21:16 "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, "'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise'?"