Matters of the Heart

As I shared in my last post Lily had a wonderful time at VBS a few weeks ago. But something much more meaningful than that happened there. Lily would tell us bits and pieces about what she was learning, but when she came home on Thursday of that week she launched into the whole story of how Jesus died on the cross, was buried in the tomb, and came back to life! When she shared about how Jesus died she said so sweetly, "And that's the sad part." I was blown away by the detail in which she understood. Later that day I overheard her talking to one of her stuffed animals telling him how she had Jesus in her heart and that he could have Jesus in his heart too if he wanted. So sweet.
So, I began to wonder a bit after that day, but I didn't really have a chance to sit down and talk more with her about these things until after the 4th of July weekend. A few days later I asked her where Jesus was and she said that He was in her heart! I asked her what that meant and she told me that it means that Jesus has taken away all of the bad things in her heart. I asked her if Jesus forgives her for all of these bad things in her heart and she said that He does. She then told me that she prayed for Jesus to come into her heart at VBS!!!
A few days after that we were talking again about how she will spend forever with God in heaven because she has Jesus in her heart and He has forgiven her. She got all excited about this and proceeded to ask me if I was going to be in heaven, if daddy was going to be in heaven, etc... and then suddenly she got really excited because, as she told me, her friend Lily had also prayed to have Jesus come into her heart at VBS and now they would get to be together in heaven too! Melt my heart.
So, I know that this is the most basic understanding of the Gospel and I hope and believe that as she grows and her understanding of the Gospel message grows as well that she will choose to rededicate her heart and life to Christ. But for the moment, I can only believe that God is faithful to his promises and that when a little red headed three year old prays for Jesus to come into her heart that God will do just that. God tells us to come to Him with the faith of a child. And now the God of the universe has taken up residence in the heart of my sweet baby girl. There may be no sweeter a gift than this.