"I miss Jesus."

Tonight I sent Parker (4) up to his room for being unkind to his sister. Meadow and I followed him upstairs to start the evening baths at about 6:30. To assure that Meadow could not follow him into his room, Parker dashed inside and accidently slammed his ear in the door. I KNOW, how that can happen is a mystery to me also. But it did, and it was quite red but not bleeding and it hurt a lot and he cried while I got an ice pack for him to put on it. I let him Ice it in a chair upstairs while I bathed Meadow and got her into her pajamas. Then after Parker was clean and in his pajamas he asked if his ear would heal. I said yes. Then he said "Can Heavenly Father and Jesus help my ear to heal?" I said yes they can and we said a prayer together asking that his ear would be feeling better very soon (Greg was out of town today). Then he burst into a fresh round of tears crying "I miss Jesus, I want to see Him. My Spirit wants to see Jesus." These were his exact words. I think I heard variations of this sentence repeated through sobs for the next what seemed like 10 minutes. I must say it was pretty sweet and definitely a little humorous too because of the earnestness and how it all started with the shutting of the ear in the bedroom door. I gathered the puddle of a Parker up in my arms and we talked about how we could live with Heavenly Father and Jesus again someday as a family and how we can keep His spirit with us even though we can't see Him and that we can say prayers to talk to our Father in Heaven whenever we want. We looked at pictures of Jesus and closed our eyes and imagined Jesus giving Parker a big hug. I called Greg to see if he had any other suggestions and he got to hear the "I miss Jesus" wails also and talk to Parker for a bit. Parker calmed down shortly after and I am left reflecting.

How individual and encompassing is the love of our Savior. What a loving elder brother He is. What great friends they must have been. How precious are our children to Jesus and to our Father in Heaven. "They loved us before we came to this earth; they continue to love us now; and their great love for us will never change." What a task we are entrusted with.