Deeper

Most of the times when my children come to understand a more abstract or complex concept I am pretty excited for them. A few months ago, while practicing adding by counting fingers was a fairly new activity for my four-year-old, he excitedly explained to me that 4 + 1 is the very same thing as 1 + 4! Pretty awesome stuff. The other day it seemed to come home to him that the world existed before he was born. It seems as though he knew that there was time that he doesn't remember from when he was a baby but I don't think it really occurred to him to think beyond that (understandably). But I can't say I really enjoyed it when, last night as he sat with our older cat, he started to extrapolate from what he knows of death in the context of cats (our other older cat died last year) and apply it to himself. He mentioned that one day he would get old and die. As he spoke his voice caught and he gave a puzzled look and mentioned his throat felt strange. He went on to say that he was sad because when he died he wouldn't see his brother anymore and that he wouldn't be here anymore and he liked it here. Ooof! Where to begin? We have talked about various aspects of this issue before but much more is at steak when concrete assurance and comfort is called for. How much can I say and how much will he understand? I'm just so thankful that life often gives us more than one opportunity to address issues and discuss things with our children.