When Children Get It Right

By getting it "wrong". The mystery, wonder, and wisdom of the innocents.

I remember in first grade, the same teacher of the infamous reading circle scandal, had us pray before lunch every day. Something that wouldn’t happen in a public school today I am pretty sure. The prayer was short and fast because we were constantly running late for the cafeteria, so our communal prayer was rapid fire. The prayer went like this:

God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food. Amen. It galloped apace with a childlike urgent sweetness. And since it rhymed it was fun too! But because we were always rushing it went more like this:

GodisgreatGodisgoodletusthankhimforourfoodahhhmen!

Further, because I learned it that fast - for years, even into my adulthood, I thought God was “gray”.

God is GRAY. God is good. Let us thank him for our food. Amen.

Never thought about it. Just took it for granted that God was gray and should therefore be thanked.

One day somewhere in my twenties (thirties) as I mused upon that little rhyming prayer of wonder… I stopped. “Gray?” God is… Gray? Wait. Oh. It must be “Great.”

Thus, the reason of life set in. Overrated.

If there is one thing God is not, it’s “gray”. He is not a fog. We are. We, often confused, go to God to wipe away the gray, the fog, with a holy Windex.

Though He is, without a doubt, filled with mystery. Sacred mystery. Mystical mystery. And if we aren’t supposed to know something, we won’t. So be it.

So… in that way, perhaps I’ll allow my little first grader self to have her prayer and keep it, too.

God is gray.

God is good.

Let us thank Him for our food.

Ahhhhmen.

“But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.” (1 Cor 2:7)

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.” (Albert Einstein)

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Happy Sunday. What little thing did you get “wrong” as a child that wasn’t so wrong after all?