marshmallow art and eternity

wyatt had a meltdown last night. i would like to say that type of occurrence is unusual for my passionate 5 year-old but it isn't. my little man's feelings are explosive, leaving little doubt for anyone within a 10 mile radius of what is coursing through his heart and mind. he is a mountain storm, quickly drenching those around him with either great joy or great _______.


last night the eruption took place over marshmallow art. to celebrate his 100th day in school, wyatt had to find 100 of something and glue it to a paper. wyatt chose marshmallows. he diligently glued them on, took it to school and proudly displayed his rather albino-esk masterpiece in the hallway of his school. after a few weeks it came home and wyatt promptly taped it to his bedroom wall. since that time, marshmallows have been gradually disappearing. i can't say where they have gone as i have never found one while cleaning or vacuuming. the thought that my children may have been snacking on the 2 month old art project forced me into declaring that it was time for said project to go to its final resting place--the trash.

wyatt looked at me with his big brown eyes, lips quivering and asked for clemency. i shook my head negatively. it was time. i told them they could do whatever they wanted with it before burying it, anything but eat it that is, and they both heartily agreed. it wasn't until after it had been smashed and nearly obliterated that wyatt's eyes began to well up with tears. while humming the tune of star wars under his breath, wyatt carried his marshmallow art to the trash and threw it in.

then came the explosion.

"MY MARSHMALLOW ART.....I DON'T WANT IT TO LEAVE. I WANT IT TO BE WITH ME FOREVER......."

this went on, in varying degrees, for an hour.

i just held my little boy while he cried. i understood. i had been very similar as a kid, getting attached to inanimate objects and grieving their departure. my mom and i even had an ongoing battle over a pair of jeans when i was wyatt's age. she kept putting them in the trash and i kept digging them out and hiding them. grief is grief and i wasn't about to belittle his.

while holding my sobbing child, something awakened in me. i felt a stirring and this thought rose to my consciousness: we are created with a desire for things to last. underneath the marshmallow mourning, there was something in my child that was crying out for eternity. instinctively he knew that we were fashioned by an eternal hand and given an eternal soul, making the desire for things to last as natural as breath itself.

the world is broken and dying. people are broken and dying. yet something in us reaches and grasps for eternity. we long and ache for love that will never die, for fame that will stand the test of time, for a legacy that will endure. this longing is the image of God in us. eternal God made eternal beings who grasp for eternity. the grief of loss we feel on this side of eternity points to that reality. we were made for another place.

after wyatt calmed down a bit, i opened my bible and read this to him. "then i saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away...and i heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will be no longer ANY death; there will be no longer any mourning, or crying or pain; the first things have passed away." (rev. 21:1-4)

someday things will last wyatt. someday.

i know it was just marshmallow art but there is a part of me that believes Jesus hung that on the wall in wyatt's mansion. it just sounds like something He would do.