Saturday, April 28, 2012

He's got the Whole World in His Hands

Sometimes, at the library, I pick out a spiritual book to share with Cole.
A few weeks ago, I picked up a beautiful book with beautiful illustrations and the lyrics to three spiritual songs: Let it Shine. When the Saints go Marching In. And He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.
I grew up singing these songs.
I don't go to church.
But, as my friend Matt put it, I'm a seeker.
So I want to share spirituality with my kids, if not necessarily one specific religion.

So I sang these songs to Cole tonight before bed.
He listened quietly as I finished with all the verses of He's Got the Whole World In His Hands.  His eyes widened at the pictures of streams and buildings and animals all being cupped by enormous palms and fingers.

At the end he said, "Who IS this? Why his hands are so big they can hold all that stuff?"

I ruminated a moment then said, "Well, some people believe there's this guy....
He's bigger than our house.  Bigger than the sky and the stars.  So big he can hold streams and people and animals and everything in His hands.  And he can take care of them all. His name's God. It's hard to know if he's real because we can't see him."

And Cole just looked at me and replied, "Oh," as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Then he asked if God was a dinosaur.

2 comments:

Sheena said...

Keep up your efforts, Melissa! After all, God might be a dinosaur. God is EVERYTHING!

Loved the Peekaboo dialogue, too!

J said...

Fantastic :) Abby asked her first God questions to an unsuspecting babysitter! And by the way, I always sang (sing) "This Little Light of Mine" to the kids ... we were once singing it on the way up the cottage. We were finishing a particularly rousing chorus as we pulled into a roadside burger joint. Since the windows were down, we were heard by the patrons ... instead of giggling politely or saying "how cute", we inspired a singalong ... with a random family or two ... awesome until they got into the "new" verse that talks about satan ... whole new conversation...

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...