How I explained Interment to Our Four Year Old

(I can only humbly thank God for the wisdom He granted to me to explain this to Butterfly. I don't know that I would have chosen to explain this to any of our children yet, but it became necessary last Saturday to explain what it means to bury someone. She got it and was satisfied.)


What does Genesis 1:1 say? "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Do you remember what He said after He made everything? He said it was very good. Everything we can see, God made. He made everything for us to enjoy, to use, and to take care of, and that includes our bodies. When we go to heaven, we cannot take any of it with us.

When we die, the part of us that thinks, and has ideas, and imagines is the part that goes to heaven. Whatever new body God gives us will be far better than our bodies here. They won't hurt, or get sick, or be hungry. You know all the itchies you have? In heaven, bodies don't itch either.

Just like Great-Grandma gave you and your sisters her teddy bears because she could not take them with her and she didn't need them anymore, she doesn't need her body anymore. So, to show her respect, they will dress her body in nice clothes and put it in a pretty box. Then they will put the box in the ground and cover it with dirt.