Julia chewed on these words for a moment and then she said, "Mommy, I know. __________ told me that she doesn't believe in God. She told me her mommy told her God was a monkey."
"Julia, that's too bad, isn't it? We know there is a God and He is no monkey!" responded my daughter.
"I know that!" Julia retorted. "He's a Lamb!"
While this story shows us that Julia has given attention to the Agnus Dei we pray at Mass, and has obviouly given attention, too, to the stained glass window in our Church depicting the Lamb of God, none of this innoculates her against the winds of heresy that blow all too liberally in our culture today.
It also points out the false ideologies many of our children's playmates and classmates are being taught in their homes. One can only wonder at the world they will experience in their adult years.
What are we to do? I think my daughter gives us good example. Make certain our children know the truth. Continue to use every opportunity to tell them the truth (Rom. 10:17). Reinforce that truth. Make them present to the truth by participation in the Faith. Exemplify the truth in your own life. Finally, but preeminently, entrust them to the One Who is the Truth -- and the Way and the Life as well.
If we are willing to do so, deep roots will grow and truth will flourish in our children's hearts. I know this to be true. Those words of advice my daughter gave to her daughter were the very words her father had given her throughout the 26 years of her life that he had lived. Apparently, they had sunk in and were being passed on to the next generation. As Proverbs reminds us, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).
A monkey. Really? Even a monkey would be shocked.
Gabriel Sullivan, age 8, came home from school with a freshly completed art project -- a paper dinosaur.But this was no ordinary dinosaur.
This paper dinosaur stood on its own with the help of a special aid rigged by Gabriel himself. He had glued his green creature to the cardboard core of a roll of toilet paper to make his antediluvian reptile stand erect.
And Gabriel loved his dinosaur.
According to his father, Tom Sullivan, Gabriel carried his dinosaur with him everywhere. He placed it on the floor when he was playing. He sat it on the table when he was eating. He even perched it on the back of the couch to have it near while he watched his favorite show and he treated it to a trip to the restaurant when the family went out to dinner.
Dad Tom asked Gabriel what it was that so attracted him to his dinosaur. Gabriel simply responded, " I made it."
I loved Gabriel's answer. It brought a smile to my face and joy to my heart. It made me think of God.
Like Gabriel, God's e
yes are always upon us (Psalm 33:18; Deut. 11:12). We are never out of His sight. We are the "apple of his eye" (Psalm 17:8, Deut. 32:10), the center of His vision.
I am thinking if we asked our Heavenly Father why he keeps us in His gaze, His answer would be the same as Gabriel's: "I made you," He would say.
And then He would add "... and I love you; you are mine (Jer. 31:3)."
