Al Fasol gives us a humorous dialogue between a little girl and her mother.

"Why aren't I in this picture?" demanded the little girl. "You weren't born, yet," said the mother smiling.

"What does that mean," asked the little girl, 'I wasn't born yet'?" Predictably, mother was a little bit at a loss for words, but gave what she hoped would be sufficient explanation for a three-year-old. It wasn't nearly enough information for this little girl.

"Then why wasn't I in this picture?" she asked again. "Because," said mother with a little less of a smile, "you weren't born yet."

"If I wasn't born yet, then where was I?" Before mother could think of an answer to that one, she asked again, "Why aren't I in this picture? I see Mommy and Daddy and brother and sister, but I don't see me. Why? and don't tell me I wasn't born yet!"

Mommy, barely restraining herself from shouting, answered, "But that's the answer to your question! You just had not been born yet!"

"Well, where was I if I wasn't born yet?" screamed the daughter. "You were in heaven!" shouted the mother.

The little girl pondered for a while, calmly took the picture album and put it away. On the way back to her room, she stopped and glared at her mother and said, "Well, I'm sure not there now!"

Sometimes family life gives us a glimpse of what heaven must be like. There are those good times, those warm times, in which we ask what we could ever have done to deserve such joy. There are other times, though, when, like that little girl, we know we're not in heaven now.

Ron Newhouse