January 27

After dinner tonight, I gave Isaac a sheet of paper and asked him to draw a picture of himself. He did an admirable job of putting his 4-year old art skills to work by creating a rendering that included a head, body, arms, legs, hands and feet. He even included blue and red pajamas, part of a blue wall (since he said he was in his room), a teddy bear and a unique toy -- Jesus in a boat.

And then he flipped the paper over and drew this (and sorry it's sideways; I can't figure out how to convince Blogger that it should go the other way):

It is, in a nutshell, our family. But I was quite taken by the composition. He carefully traced his hand twice, and then got to work adding each of us --Logan, Abby, Brady, Adam, Isaac and me-- inside the outlines.

Maybe it's a stretch, but in the moment, it reminded me that though our family is separated for now, we're all still together in God's hands. And it made Heaven feel a little less far away.