21-8-2008 - A story for the young re: "death"

My mood while writing this blog: ok

This is a short story the minister told our daughter and the other children who attended our son's funeral to help them understand "death" in a way that young children can comprehend;

There were 2 little sea bugs that lived deep in the bottom of the ocean, they loved to spend their days learning about life under the ocean and playing with their friends and family. One of the little sea bugs was more fascinated with what lay above the water. He asked the other sea bug, "What do you think it's like up there above the ocean?", and his friend replied, "We will all find out one day when we are much older but for now this is our home". Each day the little sea bug grew more and more curious about the fascinating world above and so one day he decided to venture to the top of the ocean. As he swam towards the top he could see the beautiful blue sky and the warm golden sun and he thought..."Maybe I'll just take one quick look" and so he lept out of the water onto a rock. Moments later he woke up to see his tail had split in two and he had a beautiful set of wings. He was amazed as he stretched out his soft colourful wings and looked down at his new little legs. He took off into the sky flying around looking excitedly at all the wonderful things surrounding him. He could feel the warmth of the sun on his face and smell the sweet scent of flowers. He flew above the tallest mountains and drifted with the cool breeze. "This is just incredible" he said "I must tell the others what I have seen". So he flew down towards the ocean, but as he hit the water his wings got all heavy and he couldn't swim down into the water as he didn't have a tail anymore. He sat back on the rock and thought, "What has happened to me? My new body wont allow me to go back into the ocean!" All of a sudden he saw his friend swimming towards him just below the water. His friend said to him, "Where have you been and what happened to your tail?". The little sea bug replied, "I saw a glimps of this wonderful world and I just had to have a look and see what was up here. It's just amazing. Come with me and see", "I cant do that" said his friend, "I dont have wings, I only have a tail for swimming in the ocean". The little sea bug replied, "Now I have this new body I guess this will be my new home!" His friend said, "Life will be hard without you and I will miss you very much but I will think about you every day". The little sea bug said, "We WILL see eachother again one day and just remember that I will ALWAYS be up here watching over you".

I thought this story was so sweet especially how it talks about how we get a new body when we live in Heaven. I think it just makes death seem not as scary and our daughter really sat back and thought about it for a while and seemed ok with the out come.