Jesus Heart

In 2004 Kimmie began signing "Jesus heart". She would sign this at random times with no prompting. There was always a smile on her face that radiated a sense of joy and peace and contentment. In her eyes you could see that she was far away in a special place.

I tried to talk to her about it, but it was difficult to find the right words. Once I asked her if she had Jesus in her heart. The idea of having something IN her seemed to scare her. I never used that particular phrase again. I would usually just ask her if she had a "Jesus heart." Sometimes she would say "yes" and sometimes she would say "no". But it always brought her back from the far-away place that caused her face to glow.

Eventually one evening as I was giving her a bath I started talking to her in very simple terms about Jesus. I explained to her that sin was the things we do that make God sad, the things we do that hurt others. I asked her if she understood what sin was. She nodded her head "yes". I talked to her about Jesus and how he came to help us. I asked her if she understood about Jesus. She nodded her head. I explained to her that we need to pray and tell God that we are sorry for the things we have done that made him sad. And that we need to ask Jesus to be with us always to help us do the right thing. I asked her if she understood and she nodded her head "yes". By this time we were just finishing getting her pajamas on. She immediately ran out of the bathroom, leaned against the bed, folded her hands, and laid her face down on the bed. I went over and knelt next to her wondering what I should do next. I started silently praying for her. Shortly she raised her head up, signed "Amen", and smiled her beautiful, radiant smile.

--Mom