We love imaginary friends!

By John

Kevin loves playing and has a very active imagination. A few weeks ago he mentioned he had a friend named “Speedy”; his first such imaginary friend. When we asked Kevin more about this new friend but he was pretty vague. He doesn’t really “play” with his imaginary friend but just talks about his presence when he goes on adventures to the Bat Cave, (the formal living room), or to outer space to get the bad guys. On Sunday Kevin came home with a couple of crafts made in his primary class. He had three big hearts; one for Hannah, one for Garrett, and the last one for himself. Kevin’s heart said “Jesus loves Kevin and Jared loves Jesus.”



As parents we were perplexed by the meaning of the heart, since the writing was clearly his teacher's. We inquired of Kevin if he got the wrong heart…no it’s his, we asked if he meant to tell the teacher Garrett (thinking how much Kevin loves his big brother)…no it’s Jared. We also know there aren’t any boys named Jared in his class.



Then we asked the obvious next question “who is Jared?”



Kevin with a straight and serious face responded “Oh, Jared lives next door to Speedy.”



We all busted up laughing. Kevin didn’t know why Garrett, Hannah, Lajuana, and I were laughing about. Gaining composure Lajuana and I tried to gain a greater understanding of Jared. Turns out that Speedy is 6 years old and Jared lives next door to Speedy and he is 13, they both live far away.



After a while Kevin was tired of talking about Jared and so we left it alone but the whole time Garrett kept saying “but who is Jared?” I could tell Kevin wanted to go and play so I told Garrett, “Obviously, Jared lives next to Speedy!”



A few minutes passed and I turned to Lajuana and we both wondered what his teacher thought. Did she think Jared was real; Kevin talked about him so seriously I think he could have pulled it off? Something we’ll ask before class next Sunday; can’t wait to hear the answer!