"J-Jason?"
"Mm?" The boy was supposed to be asleep.
"Do we gotta go to church Sunday?"
Well, that was an easy enough question to answer. Yes or no. And if the question started with 'do we gotta,' the easy answer would be No.
"No."
"How come not?"
He should have known he wouldn't get off that easy. Honesty was best, though, so still not too difficult. "Mostly because Da isn't here to make us."
That reply got a giggle from the boy and a snort from the other brother. Josh was communicating mostly in snorts and sarcasm these days. Twas his age, and Jason was glad dealing with that was mostly Da's responsibility.
"Doncha believe in God?" Josh asked. Curiously, not sarcastically. Interesting.
"Now, Josh, how could I live here and not believe in God? Isn't this a piece of heaven?"
"Then why not go to church?"
Jason felt ambushed. Joshua wasn't known for asking difficult questions. He was more likely to think he had all the answers.
Jeremy sat up in his bed. "What m-makes a church?"
"It's a building, stoop," Josh answered. (Stoop for stupid.)
"D-don't think-think so. Doesn't the ch-church build the church?"
"Then the church is the people. The people that go in the building."
"If they're the church before the building, and in the b-building, th-then aren't th-they still the church when they're out of the b-building?"
Both brothers answered at the same time.
"Yes."
"That's a stupid question."
"Jeremy, what did you mean, 'what makes a church'?" Jason waited for an answer.
Jeremy took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts. Joshua had been teaching him to do that, and to use more grown-up words as well. As far as Jason could tell, it was working.
"When you said ab-bout living here b-being heaven. There's p-places in the t-trees or on the edges – the cliffs 'n' g-gorges, where it – where it – it ju-just f–feels like church. B-big – and g-grand – and q-quiet, and like singing you can't hear. I can't – c-can't esplain it v-very good."
"You mean like that place with the well and the really big trees all mossy?" Josh asked eagerly. "Yeah, that did feel kinda churchy. But so what?"
"We can have church without g-going anywhere."
"So we can," Jason agreed. "Would you like to do that? Have our own service?" Da would like that idea. He'd insisted upon it, in fact, when the family was in places with no church. To a child, it had been the waste of good exploring time, Jason had thought. Or playtime, or reading time, since the only approved reading had been the Holy Book.
"Dunno," Jeremy finally answered. "I w-was just wondering."
"Sheesh," Josh muttered.
"Well, keep asking. Despite what Joshua says, no question is stupid to someone who doesn't know the answer. But not tonight. Go to sleep, both of you."
"Good night."
"Good night."
"Good night. Sleep."
"Or at least shut up," Josh added, and Jeremy laughed his little happy laugh.
In ten minutes, two of them were asleep, and in fifteen minutes all three were.