This past week, Ana and Emma had some pretty heavy questions concerning life, death, eternity, and, of course, Jesus.

Our girls know a lot about Jesus.  We talk about Him at home, we talk to Him in our comings and goings, and we hear Wes talk about Him at church.  As far as Jesus knowledge goes, our girls should be ahead of the game, honestly.  But what’s that saying about how the cobbler’s children go barefoot?  Yeah, in our case, it would be about how the pastor’s youngest daughter comes out with this little gem — “Well, you know Jesus is a whole lot like Santa.”

Cue the screeching record.

We’ve had some Santa drama in the past, as you may well remember.  And I’ve played along and made it jolly fun and all… but this?  My children asking questions about eternity and then equating our living, amazing Lord to a make believe character?  Even Ana felt some qualms about this all in her very young, very recently redeemed heart because she crinkled her nose, knowing without knowing why that comparing Jesus and Santa isn’t quite right.

Maybe it was my grandmother’s passing that put me in a fatalistic frame of mind, but I declared, as we were sitting in that restaurant finishing up lunch that I was DONE with this.  Wes agreed.  And so we told the girls who Santa really is, what’s real and what isn’t, and most importantly, who Christ is.

I expected tears.  I expected protests.  I expected shock.

What I unexpectedly got was uproarious laughter from both Faulkettes.

“No wonder!,” Ana exclaimed.  “We would be bad some days… and we STILL got gifts, because YOU were the one who gave them to us!  And you love us even when we’re bad!”

“YEAH!,” Emma screeched.  “And that’s why you always leave a Mexican Coke for Santa!  Because YOU like them and drink them ALLLLL the time!”

Then, they figured out that the same truth applied to the Tooth Fairy, and Ana said, “That’s why there was no money under my pillow that night!  It wasn’t that the Tooth Fairy forgot!  There IS no Tooth Fairy!  It was YOU, Mommy, and YOU forgot!”

They thought it was the funniest joke ever, thankfully.  And while I was so confused when I myself learned that make believe is make believe and that Jesus is real, this revelation seemed to clear up the confusion our girls had about the two to begin with, as Emma proclaimed, “That makes good sense now!”

I felt so good about the successful execution of this difficult conversation that I said, “Okay, now let me tell you where babies come from…”

But Wes cut me off with, “I think they’ve learned enough for today.”

We will have that discussion another day, loves.   (And now they’re asking for it.  Because “you mean, babies don’t come from a mommy’s tummy?”  Well, yeah, BUT…)

Thankful for meaningful conversations with our girls.  Can’t believe they’re growing up so fast…