This is what our elder son, Joel, wrote to his Uncle Ben on his birthday.
Happy birthday!
Uncle Ben, life is short and our physical forms will not last. If you are a good person, you will go to heaven and you will see God. As you age, I grow up, and in time I too will go to heaven and we will see each other there.
Kids. When we forget about them, they pop out of a corner and startle us.
No, of course he didn’t write this. He’s not even 6. I wrote this—but only as a paraphrase to what he had written to make sure he wasn’t misunderstood, and I’ve verified it with the little writer to make sure it wasn’t too glossed-over.
Still, I was surprised by the way a child’s mind has construed the profound assurance of salvation. The message isn’t yet theologically complete, but simple and lovely enough.
Death is of no consequence against the enormity of Divine Grace.
Now back to the paraphrasing. It’s a necessary caveat to this post because I’m going to show you the actual letter, word for word, alphabet for alphabet. So having decoded it for you I won’t have to worry about you getting nightmares over it.
Okay *phew*, so here it is.
Happy birthday!
Uncel (Uncle) Ben be good and soon you will be dead and soon you will go to heaven and you will see God and you won’t be something and when you get old I will grow up and soon I will become dead also and go to heven (heaven) also.
I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I did.
"Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine!
O what a foretaste of Glory Divine!"
- Fanny Crosby, 1873