"Favorite Puppy" faith builder

Luke's favorite stuffed animal is "Favorite Puppy". Today, Luke came inside telling me about this horrible thing that happened:

Favorite Puppy stuck in the gutter on the roof

My first thought was about how to get the puppy down because there was no way a three year old can get something off the roof and that eventually I would have to get it down, but I decided to have a little L&L (Love and Logic) fun with it because I've enjoyed seeing Luke think through his own problems and figure out the world lately.

Me-Oh No! How sad!

Luke-Mommy can you get him down?

Me-Do you think he's cold up there?

Luke-I think he's scared too.

Me- What are you going to do?

Luke-I'm going to call the fire department and they will help me and bring a ladder too.

Me-Luke, you're welcome to call the pretend fire department, but I'm not going to let you call the real fire department because (he knows that) favorite puppy is not real and they have real fires to go to and real people to help.

Luke goes on to call the pretend fire department with the phone in his playhouse. He pretends for a while that they are on their way. After a while, he busts out with "Jesus will get him down for me." I encourage him to ask Jesus by praying. Luke looks up to the sky and says something like "Jesus, will you please get favorite puppy down from the roof for me? In Jesus name, Amen"

Now a million thoughts are running through my mind. The biggest two are probably

• How can I/should I sneak the puppy down? When will we do it?


• Maybe I can explain that God works through people???

I did decide that I needed to explain that Jesus could work lots of ways to get the puppy down. I told Luke that Jesus could send a big wind or use Mommy or Daddy to get it down. He was pretty sure Jesus was coming personally to do it. I just said my piece and left it at that.

Micah comes home. Luke immediately shows Micah. I tell Micah not to get it down. We pray about puppy at dinner. Luke has to go to bed without puppy. We pray about puppy again at bedtime.

Micah and I were upstairs discussing lots of boring "grown-up" stuff. The wind had been blowing pretty strong for a while. I ask Micah if he thinks Favorite Puppy has blown down. He walks across the room to check on Favorite Puppy. He's still there. As Micah is looking out the window, Favorite Puppy blows down.

We go get Luke and take him to get Favorite Puppy.

Favorite Puppy after being blown down

Luke after being reunited-He looks wired, but he is barely awake.
I know that was a long story, but I just have to add a little more. I was resigned to the fact that in the next day or so Micah or I would get the puppy off the roof, but it really bothered me how unsure I was that Jesus would really get the puppy down. I wanted to give Jesus a chance to get him down and WHY am I so utterly shocked that he did.

The other point I would like to make is that Favorite Puppy being stuck on the roof was a really big deal to my kiddo. I'm sure lots of the things we pray about seem just as silly to Jesus, but if they are things that matter to us then they matter to him.

God bless you all tonight.