Cafeteria Theology

2nd grader boy, "Do you know what Infinity equals?"

Me, grasping at straws wondering if I have a sign on my head saying 'she stinks at math' answers "uhm, well uhm, uhm nothing?  Infinity doesn't end does it?"  I have learned to repeat the question in some manner when I have no clue what a 2nd grader is asking me.

2nd grader boy, "Well...", scratching his head wondering how to explain Infinity to me.  "Infinity doesn't end, your right, it goes on and on and on and on and on.  Infinity equals forever."  Smiling at me with pity that I must never have passed the 2nd grade.

2nd grader girl, "Human beings do not live into Infinity.  They die."

2nd grader boy, "Unless they go to Hell." 

My youngest son, also a 2nd grader boy, "Mommy, what is Hell?"

Okay, so let me stop here because I can hear the exclamation of "Lucy you have some 'splaining to do" playing in my head.  I am sure we have talked about Hell at some point in our house but my girls call it "the place down there" since they know Hell is a curse word.  So my youngest's only reference would be "the place down there."  However, I think it also speaks to my theology.  I don't stress on Hell, I don't even really stress on Heaven.  My focus is The Kingdom and how to surrender to Grace so that the Revelation of the Kingdom here and now on earth can be revealed in the Christ we meet in our midst.  That being said...

Me, "Some people believe that after you die you can go to a place called Hell."

2nd grader girl, "I don't want to go there!"

2nd grader boy, "Me either!"

Me, "Me either!"

My youngest son, "Me either!  uhm, Why?"

2nd grader boy, "It goes on forever and forever and forever and forever and it is not fun, it is so boring!"

2nd grader girl, "yeah, it is horrible, they make you do chores over and over and over and over again!"

My youngest son, "oh yuck, that is horrible!"

Me, "so how was that bus demonstration today...."

And that my friends is your typical? cafeteria conversation.  Some might say eating lunch in the school cafeteria with about 100+ students is a version of one of the circles of Hell.  Today, however, a light from Heaven shined as kids explored the Kingdom in their midst.  How easy it would have been to just answer my new little friend with "Infinity equals Eternity", but then what fun would that have been to shut the door to the ensuing revelation?

"I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child  will never enter it."  Mark 10:15