This afternoon I was heading to our next adventure with the littles in the backseat. They were having some kind of conversation between the two of them, as I had the jazz music playing and they were not interested in listening at all.
Cooter got really frustrated, and I can’t remember why, but his frustrated, vehement comment said it all. “I just wish there were only one person on this earth!”
“Really? Who?”
He harrumphed. I’ve often wondered what that was, but believe me, you’ll know it when you hear it. And then he said, “Me!”
Okay, that was enough of that hormonal angst. (I mean, good gravy, he’s just barely eight. Let’s wait a while to start all that fun, shall we?)
“Well, okay buddy,” I started as I made the necessary turns to keep us on track for our destination. “Let’s see. If you’re the only person on earth, then there’s no Legos, because there’s no one to design and build the Legos, and there’s no one to play Legos with…..”
“Okay, okay. Me and the Lego designers, and that’s it.”
“And there will be no one to work at the power company, so you won’t have light to see by to build with the Legos, and no food because no one’s growing it or selling it or transporting it or cooking it, so you’ll be real hungry…..”
“Okay, never mind.” He sighed. “I want to live here with all the people.”
Yeah, I had hoped you might come to that conclusion.
About a minute and a half later he piped up again. “Well, I almost said just me and God. I mean God can do anything, and it’s kind of like magic so God could make the Legos, and we could be friends and play together…..”
His sister, our Princess, interrupted. “But what if you and God have a fight?”
Wow. Bam. Go straight for the jugular.
Because in their world, that is very real. We get into arguments and disagreements with those we love and care about. It doesn’t mean we don’t still care about each other and it’s never forever, it’s just the differences of opinions happen and then the arguments follow. I thought it was an interesting question.
I suppose it might sound sacrilegious to some, but I think there have been many, many people who have walked this earth who have “had a fight” with God. And what comes after that fight is the really good stuff.
Grace. Love. Peace. Life-changing decisions. Changes of the heart.
Tonight I’m thankful for Cooter’s change of heart when he realized that we do need people. All the people. That there are so many people he will never, ever meet who affect his life, make his life better, what it is. I think it’s good for all of us to do that from time to time. Stop and think about all the folks who touch our lives–and all the lives we touch–who will be forever faceless and nameless. Doesn’t change the fact that we need to keep remembering them though. In the choices we make, in our actions, in our hearts and minds. Remembering “it ain’t just about us.”
May we have a moment of remembering and sending light into the world for those whose hands touch our lives–the power company, the truck drivers, the news reporter, the person sewing the clothes, the person packaging the cereal–there are so many people without whom we would not be who and what and where we are this very second. And most likely we will never meet them to thank them.
Mind. Blown.
Wishing you all a day of making lives better. Yours included.
Love to all.
I Might Need A Nap 