A is for Afterlife #AtoZChallenge

Posted April 1, 2021 in A-Z Challenge / 7 Comments

Life, the Universe, and Everything According to My Five-Year-Old

Today is the first day of the Blogging from A-Z Challenge! I’ll be posting every day except Sundays throughout April. This year, my readers voted for the theme “Life, the Universe, and Everything According to My Five-Year-Old”. During bedtime discussions and colouring sessions, my daughter will finally be providing the answers to the philosophical problems and unsolved mysteries that have puzzled humanity’s greatest thinkers for centuries.

Is there an afterlife and, if so, what is it like?

We talk about death quite openly with our daughter (in a child-appropriate way) and she has always been curious about it. We are a non-religious family (I’m a Secular Humanist), but we encourage Leona to explore her own ideas about spirituality and religion. She has recently learned about Easter at school, which explains her answer. I hope that her slightly confused retelling of the resurrection story does not offend anyone.

Me: Where do you think we go after we die?

Leona: To God?

Me: Oh. What’s it like there, with God?

L: I don’t know what it’s like to be with God, but I do know God.

Me: Do you? How do you know about Him?

L: Hmm…at school we learned about Jesus and some of the bad men who didn’t like him and wanted to kill him. So, he died.

Me: Ah, I see. What happened to him after he died?

L: He had a little visit to them. He went on a big stove, a stove…on one of those…what is it called? [Makes cross shape with her hands].

Me: A cross.

L: Yes. And he was turned into stone as well. And then, they all pushed like this [pretends to push the stone, with grunting noises]. And they wrapped him up as a zombie. I mean, like a mummy. In paper.

Me: Oh, I see. Then what happened to him?

L: Then there was a friend of Jesus’ and her name was Mary. And the stone was moved! And someone was guarding it.

Me: What did they find?

L: They finded a fairy. I mean a angel. And…something special happened to Jesus.

Me: What happened to him?

L: [dramatically] He was gone!

Me: Gone? Gone where?

L: Back to visit the people of course. And Mary didn’t believe. He had a little visit. And then she saw Jesus but she thought it was a farmer. She said, “Have you seen Jesus?” “What?! I’m Jesus!” He said that, Mum. And then he died.

Me: What…after he came back he died again?

L: Mmm-mmm.

Me: When we die, do you think that we go to God?

L: But first we have a little visit. To see our friends again. It was like 5 minutes. One, two, three, four, six, eight. Oh, I skipped one. Five.

Me: Where does God live?

L: I don’t know.

Me: Well, some people believe in a place called Heaven. Have you heard of that?

L: Oh, I know that. Then we can fly!

Me: What about ghosts then? Do you think some people come back as ghosts?

L: Yes. ‘Cause, remember…that nan on Moana, she turned as a ghost.

Me: Oh, yes, she did!

L: Thank you, Brainy. [Taps self on head].

child's drawing of a ghost
“Ghost” by Leona, aged 5
over to you

Did you enjoy Leona’s retelling of the Easter story? What’s your view on the afterlife? Do you believe in ghosts? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

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7 responses to “A is for Afterlife #AtoZChallenge

  1. Absolutely inspired thinking. My wife is due with our first child in June, so I’m looking forward to asking them the same deep philosophical questions that we all need the answers to. I’ll definitely be back to see more of Leona’s thoughts, but in the meantime, have a great time blogging from A to Z!

  2. That may be one of those most adorable interpretations of the resurrection that I have ever heard. I’m a spiritual but not religious Christian, so I believe All That Stuff but I don’t go to church. I love hearing different points of view on these things and that was adorable. Thank you for sharing. I look forward to more.

  3. Fantastic! I love it. My son is autistic, so these conversations are so difficult but we do have them sometimes. I try to give him a blend of everything since most of the people he will grow up with will be Christian even though we are not.

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