On the walk home Arik wondered a lot about the animal babies they saw and the different ways God created them. As he thought more about the Bear cubs Arik began to wonder about how he was born. Mommy liked to tell he and Julia that they were God’s gift to Daddy and her. Sometimes Mommy would gather them together, squeeze them tight and they’d all pretend they were in their own special nest. Mommy called it their “love nest”. Mommy’s love nest was one of Arik’s favorite places in the whole world. Did this mean that he, like the little birds, was hatched from an egg?

The next morning Arik was still thinking about all the ways God created animal families.

“Mommy Bird, he asked with a big grin, before I was born did I live in an egg in our love nest?”

“Well,” Mommy replied with surprise, “…not exactly.”

“Oh I know”, said Arik excitedly, “maybe you put Julia and I in the sand like the little Turtle babies. Is that how we were born?” Now Julia was excited too.

“I’m very sorry to disappoint you two”, laughed Mommy, “but you and Julia weren’t hatched from eggs at all”.

Then Arik remembered the other animals, like the Otter and Bear cubs that Daddy said lived in their Mommy’s tummies before they were born. “Mommy”, he finally asked, “Then did I come from your tummy”?

Mommy then bent down close to Arik and looked at him intently with her almond shaped eyes. “Not in Mommy’s tummy, my dear little Baby Bear, but in another very special place.”

Now Arik’s eyes got big, and in a hushed small voice he excitedly asked, “Where Mommy, where is the special place?”

“In my heart”, she answered and in the most tender voice he had ever heard.

“In your heart,” Arik asked with wonder?

“Me too Mommy, did I live in your heart too” asked Julia?

“Yes my little love, you too”. Mommy then pulled Arik and Julia close to her and hugged them like they’d never been hugged before.

© Mark R Schneider