Do Goldfish Go To Heaven?
Some of life’s best conversations happen with my grandchildren
“Grandpa, Sunny died.”
My mind started racing, first trying to figure out which grandchild it was on the other end of the phone. Second, but just as important, who is Sunny?
Some of the best conversations I’ve ever had have been with my grandchildren. The questions they pose are interesting, often funny, and almost always more difficult to answer than they should be. The conversation I had last week with my five-year-old grandson, Jaxon, was no exception.
My grandson’s goldfish, Sunny, died last week. Sunny had a good life. He lived in a nice, but modest aquarium in the bedroom my grandson shared with his older brother.
Jaxon felt a little bit sorry for Sunny because he “lived in a bowl and couldn’t go anywhere.” On nice days, Jaxon would take Sunny outside. Every night before he went to sleep, he would sit with Sunny and tell him about what he did that day.
Perhaps, Sunny couldn’t go run and play, but with Jaxon’s nightly, detailed descriptions Sunny came closer than any other goldfish to knowing what it was like.
For more than a year, Sunny was my grandson’s best friend. So to that little five-year-old boy, Sunny’s death was a big deal.
I talked to my daughter to find out how she and her family were handling the situation. She told me Jaxon wanted to have Sunny cremated. He wanted to keep Sunny’s ashes in the aquarium in his room.
The next morning, my daughter “cremated” Sunny. Loosely translated, she flushed the fish and retrieved some ashes from the fireplace, which she put into a tiny vile in the aquarium in Jaxon’s room.
That night after dinner, they all gathered by Jaxon’s bed for a “Celebration of Life” service for Sunny. After the service, Jaxon called me.
“Grandpa, do goldfish go to heaven?”
I thought very carefully before I answered that question.
“Jaxon, do you know God?” I asked him.
“No.”
OK. So maybe I didn’t think this conversation through carefully enough for the literal mind of a five-year-old.
“Jaxon, do you know who God is?”
“Yes, but I never met him.”
Jaxon and I talked a little bit about God. I explained that just like they taught him in Sunday school, God made all the creatures, even goldfish.
Since God made all the creatures, that means God loves all the creatures. And since God loves Sunny, that means God has a very special place for Sunny now.
“Promise?”
“Yes, Jaxon, I promise.”
“What’s it like?”
I told Jaxon I had never been there, so I didn’t know for sure, but I would try to help him imagine what it was like.
“Close your eyes,” I told him.
Then I imagined out loud what a special place for a goldfish to spend eternity might be like. Turns out, it’s a beautiful place indeed. The part Jaxon liked best about Sunny’s special place was that Sunny wouldn’t have to swim in circles all day, every day.
Yesterday morning I found a short poem. There was no author attributed, so I have no idea who wrote it. I added Sunny’s name to it and emailed it to my daughter. I asked her to print it and place it under the aquarium that holds Sunny’s ashes.
“He swam in circles all his life. That was his goldfish fate. But now that he is in goldfish Heaven, Sunny can swim straight.”
Yes, Jaxon, goldfish go to Heaven.
Until next time, take care of yourself, and each other.
