I’ve been an aunt since I was 12, so I love having houseparent kids stop in my office – it always brightens my day and I never know what kind of conversations I’ll have with them. I’ve also lived with Type 1 Diabetes since I was 9. There was a day when both of these worlds collided to form a memory that I hold dearly.

Five-year-old Paiton had stopped in to use my pens to color a picture when she caught sight of some diabetes tech that helps me manage my blood sugars. ‘Shy’ is not a word that I would ever use to describe Paiton, so she came right out and asked, “What’s that?”

But not in Heaven, right?

I attempted to bring diabetes down to her level with a simplified explanation of a very complicated disease. “There’s something inside my body that’s broken and it makes me sick if I don’t take care of it and

this helps me take care of it,” pointing to my tech.

“Oh…When will you get better?” Despite the touchy subject, I smiled. I loved her curiosity.

“Well, I probably won’t ever get better. I’ll probably be sick forever.”

Her eyes lit up and her immediate response was, “But not in Heaven, right?”

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself." Philippians 3:20-21

You know, it’s good to get reminders from a Bible verse, or be convicted from the words of a preacher, or be sharpened as iron from the words of a friend. But sometimes, you just need to have a conversation with a 5-year-old.