No Joke

I'm used to getting laughs from Isaac.
Today I got a whole lot more.

"Hey, mom," Isaac said. "You wanna hear a joke?"

"Ummm, sure," I said, bracing myself for 5-year-old boy humor.

He asked me something about leaves and where they live. The punch line didn't match up. At all. Then he asked me if I had any jokes. Of course, I said, desperately trying to recall a Laffy Taffy joke from my youth.

I'm not going to lie. It wasn't my best effort, but it elicited a giggle or two from Isaac.

We traded a few more back and forth and back and forth in the little time it takes to get from the baby-sitter's house to ours. Eventually, the ball lay in Isaac's court.

"Do you know why God has Addie?" 

Oh boy.

"That's not a joke, mom," he reassured me.

I know.

"Because God loves her," I said.

"And that's a beautiful thing."

Yes, Isaac. I suppose it is.