Heartthoughts: Innocents at Large

The hearts of our son and daughter-in-law warmed with parental pride when, on a hospital visit where they had offered prayer for a friend’s child, their four-year-old daughter asked to pray. “Lord, we just pray,” she began as their faces beamed in humble gratitude for this pious child, “that it would rain eggs full of toys and candy down from the sky for Easter!” she finished triumphantly. By that time, they could hardly keep their composure.

Concepts of the divine are both so real and nebulous in the minds of kids that it sometimes borders on innocent irreverence. Like the time when a friend's little girl, also 4, stepped out into a surprise cool front one Spring morning on the usually balmy Gulf Coast. “Mama,” she observed, “I’m sure glad Jesus lives in our hearts and not down here!” Her mom asked why, and she replied, “Because He wouldn’t like this crazy weather!”

Or the time I heard my granddaughters, then 3 and 4, playing. “Corrin, do you know everything?” Rachel asked her bossy big sister, to which Corrin modestly replied, “No, Rachel! Nobody knows everything but God and Pa-Pa!”

A young grandson of one of my nieces had accompanied his grandmother as she helped clean her church. He was awed by this behind-the-scenes look at God’s house. Going into the kitchen, he said, “Is this where you cook for God?” She told him no, that that’s where they cooked for the people (though he had his theology right!). Then he saw the coffee pot, and not to be deterred, he asked, “Does God like coffee?”

I don’t know what my son was thinking, when, 10 or 11 at the time, we had gone to a church small-group meeting at a member’s house. It was the custom to bring a light snack for break time, and I had set my plate of cookies on the counter. A little later as I passed through the kitchen on my way to the rest room, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a bottle of liquor beside my cookies--the one my husband had received from a customer as a Christmas gift and had put in the cupboard thinking I might use it in cooking! Unbeknowst to his parents, Jamie had brought a hostess gift!

Now it’s his turn to be astounded by a precocious daughter who prays for Easter candy from Heaven. Jesus said the angels of these little ones are always beholding the face of the Father (sharing their antics?). And Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is made up of such as these. Well, with all these little sunbeams around, there will never be a dull moment!