Like Children

This is an extract from A Darkling Plain by Phillip Reeve. The book is set in a time where nearly the entire human population has abandoned the monotheistic religions, in favour of a vague henotheistic tradition. The character Oneone is one of the few Christians left in the world, having converted because she believed Christ helped her through an exceedingly difficult task in the book prior to this one. The conversation below is between Oneone and her companion Hester, after their friend, Theo, has run back into a war zone, and they have had to leave him behind.

"You should have prayed to that old god of yours! To keep him safe! To bring him back!"
...After a while, Oneone said "If God could do things like that, the world wouldn't look the way it does now. He can't reach down and stop any of us from doing the things we choose to do."
"What use is he, then?"
Oneone shrugged. "He sees. He understands. He knows how you're feeling. He knew how Theo felt. He knows what it's like to die, and when we die we go to Him."
"To the Sunless Country, you mean? Like ghosts?"
Oneone shook her head patiently. "Like children. Do you remember what it was like to be a tiny child? When you knew everything was possible, and everything was given to you, and you were safe and loved, and the days went on forever? That's what it'll be like in Heaven. That's what it's like for Theo now."