Jonah and his friend Jesus

It is amazing to me the conversations that you can have with a 5 year old boy.
The other day in the car, Jonah asked where we were going. We were taking our bunny Cottontail to have her teeth trimmed (they grow crooked, poor thing). He asked if it was "near the place where we go to talk about God and Jesus". That seems to be his question anytime we are going somewhere. I told Jonah we go to church on Sundays. Then I asked him, "You like church don't you?" To my surprise, he said NO. The reason for my surprise is that Jonah has been the reason that Sean and I have been more open to church and following our failth. So for him to say he didnt like church was a surprise! I asked why. Jonah's simply said, "They are not nice to Mommys". I didn't understand what he meant, so I asked him to explain.
Jonah said, "When we go to church, we always talk about God and Jesus, but we don't ever talk about Jesus' mommy. Was she a bad person? If not, then we should talk about her more because mommys are very important. And I dont like church because we always stand by the big black thing (he means the speaker) and those people in church sing loud and everytime we go - JESUS IS NOT THERE!"
At first, I had to laugh. It has been hard for me to see my baby growing up. There is nothing about him that is baby anymore and I will never get that back. And to be having these "mature" conversations with him was mind blowing. I also had to laugh because his reasons for not liking church were ones that could be explained, and none of them were a reason to not go anymore.
So I explained to him that we can talk about Mary anytime he wants to, the people in the church are singing loudly because they are happy and they are feeling the presence in theirs hearts and want to sing out to God. And as for Jesus, I told him that He is ALWAYS there with him. As our friend Peter helped me explain it to Jonah when he wanted to know why he couldn't play in the sandbox with God, I said "Like air, he is everywhere."
Of course, typical Jonah did not accept this answer and wanted to know where Jesus lived. I told him that he lives in Heaven. His response was true, but creepy -"Let's go there this weekend."
A car ride that was supposed to be 5 minutes turned into 20 minutes. Opening the door to this conversation about heaven and death was something I knew we had to have, no matter how scary it could be - for the both of us!
I don't care that we were late for the vet appointment. That 20 minute conversation of pure honesty with my 5 year old is what mattered.
This sunday we will be back at church and Jonah asked that we not stand near the "black thing" and wants to ask the "guy who talks about God" if we can mention Jesus' mommy.
A pure proud peacock moment for me.