A Conversation about God, Heaven, and Bowling

During a storm today, my conversation with my four year old daughter and four year old niece went something like this:

Thunder (niece cowers)

Me: It's ok. Do you know when it thunders that means great-Gram and great-Pop are up in heaven bowling strikes?

Niece: Really? I'm not scared anymore! Yippee! What's the lightening?

Me: That is the light from people taking pictures of great-Gram and great-Pop bowling.

Niece: ohhhhh....

Daughter: Are my snails bowling, too? (snails passed on a few months ago) I really miss my snails.

Me: Yep. They are bowling, too.

Daughter: When they went to heaven did God make fix them all better?

Me: Yes, he did. Or she did. We don't really know if God is a he or she.

Daughter: I think the girl God is up in the sky, and the boy God is in the ground. (oh - out of the mouth of babes...)

Me to niece: what about you?

Niece: I don't know how snails bowl...