Our toddler recently got a pet water snail that he named “Speedy”. He loved to peek at Speedy and say hello as we walked by his tank, and would bring him up in conversations randomly throughout the day. And then last week we noticed Speedy had fallen and was upside down on the floor of his tank. We used a straw to conduct a rescue mission in which we flipped Speedy back to his rightful shell-up position, and to our delight and relief Speedy quickly – for a snail! – resumed his adventures around his tank. But then just a couple of days later, our toddler exclaimed “Oh no! Speedy needs help!” – once again, Speedy was lying upside down on the bottom of his tank. We again undertook a rescue mission, turning Speedy right-side up, and assumed all would be well. However, as we continued to check in on Speedy, he remained stationary, and it became increasingly clear that Speedy was not going to move from that place again.
My toddler kept asking about Speedy, and eventually I sadly told him that in spite of our best efforts to take care of our little pet, Speedy had died. My toddler quickly said we could help him, or give him medicine, or take him to the vet, or pray for him, and suggested various people we could consult for help. He was so earnest and sincere in both his desire to help Speedy and his belief that we could make everything right again – just like how Doc, in his favorite show “Doc McStuffins”, is always able to save every toy that comes to her in need of help.
How I wished in that moment that I had it in my power to make Speedy well again, to give our little story a happy ending for my toddler. How I wished we lived in a world where every sickness and injury could be cured, where death does not exist, where we could always save and protect those we love. How I wished I could shelter my toddler from the heartbreaking reality of the fallen world in which we live. And yet I tried to trust that even these hard moments of loss can point to our need for Jesus and the hope we have in the gospel.
So instead of saying that Speedy would feel better soon, I explained to my dear little toddler that Speedy had died, and that sadly we all face death someday because we live in a fallen world. I reminded him we could be so thankful for the time we had with Speedy, and that he was a great little pet snail, but that we needed to say goodbye. I told him that having to say goodbye to Speedy could remind us of how much we need Jesus. I reminded him Christmas is a wonderful time in which we celebrate the birth of Jesus, who came to rescue us from our sin and sadness and to show us how much God loves us – just like we have been talking about all throughout this Advent season. I told him that Jesus already saved us from our sins when he came to earth that first Christmas, if we choose to trust in him and his work on the cross. And I told him that we continue to wait for the even better day when Jesus will return again and make all things right – a wonderful day when there will be no more sadness or death, even for tiny pet snails.
“Then, one day, God’s Son came to live in this world as a person. He was called Jesus.
Jesus always did what God said.
Jesus never sinned.
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Jesus knew that things were sometimes bad and sometimes sad.Jesus said that God had sent him to open the way back to God’s wonderful place, where there would be nothing bad and no one sad!
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[Jesus] tells us, God says it is wonderful to live with him. Because of your sin, you can’t come in. BUT I died on the cross to take your sin…So all my friends CAN now come in!We can live with God forever! There will be nothing bad, and no one sad.
We will see God and speak to God and just enjoy being with God – just as he planned.
It will be wonderful to live with him. And it’s all because of JESUS.”
-Excerpts from “The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross: The True Story of Why Jesus Died and Rose Again“, by Carl Laferton