Protection

I should preface this little story by saying that Jillian is in what I am going to call an "afraid of the night" phase. She doesn't want it to be dark, doesn't like it that we don't all sleep in the same room, is scared of every shadow in her room, is aware of the wind and doesn't like the noise it makes. She is also at my bedside at  least every other night right now with some sort of fear. I can't seem to convince her that she should wake up Matt, since daddies are really good at this nighttime scary stuff, so I am doing my best to be understanding and teach her to be brave. Usually, I have to turn on yet another light (she already sleeps with the closet and hall lights on), remind her that she is safe, and pray with her. If I'm lucky I have to only do that once.
As we headed up to bed tonight, Jillian caught sight of Matt's little Santa Doctor figurine on the office shelf. He set him there when we unloaded the Christmas boxes, and I guess we just forgot about him when we put it all away. She seemed startled by it, and said "Whoa. What is that guy doing there?"

Me: "Umm...maybe he's watching you"

J: "What?!" (that is where I caught myself and realized that might seem scary to her...)

Me: "Oh, I mean that maybe he's just here to look over you and protect you" (trying to recover from my inadvertent scare)

J: "OH!" And then in a hushed voice..."Is that Jesus?"

Me: (stifled giggle) "No honey, that's just Daddy's Santa doctor guy". My response apparently got her thinking about Santa and Jesus in the same frame of thought, because the next thing out of her mouth was,

J: "How does Jesus get in our house?"

Me: "What do you mean? Jesus doesn't get into our house"

J: "If he helps protect me, how does he get into our house?"

Matt (overhearing this from Adrienne's room, shouts) "He goes down the chimney!"

Me: (shooting Matt the evil eye that he can't see) "No, he doesn't Jillian. Daddy is teasing. Jesus can be everywhere all the time. He is God and he is bigger than we can understand. I don't know how he watches us and knows us, but he does."

J: "Got it, Mom"
Thank goodness that answer satisfied her, because as usual, I was unprepared for her inquisition...

The mystery man