Wit & Wisdom, week of Sept. 26

Here's this week's wit and wisdom. New words are in italics.

• handing me a door hanger: "I need to report this of America with Chinese." I have no idea what it means, but it's the first time she's really used either country's name correctly.
• "That's a possibility!"
• She put an empty laundry basket on Bobby's head (like a helmet) and declared: "You've been captured by a roving reporter in jail!"
• We were out in the driveway, and she ran toward the street, trying to scare one of our "stray" cats out of the road. She told Bobby that she wanted Olfie out of the road because a car might squish him and he might die, and she "would be glum if that happened."
• "Mommy, remember that place where we saw Matthew [a boy from church] and rode all the rides like at Dollywood? What was it called?" Lake Winnepesaukah, I told her. "Oh yeah. Lake Winn. A. Pah. Sew. Kah. I guess they named it after the big pond there?" There is a small lake in the middle of Lake Winnie; I have no idea if its name is Lake Winnepesaukah, but I was impressed at Maggie's ability to connect the two.

Cute story: She keeps asking me how tall God is. I've told her that He's bigger than anything she can imagine, bigger than the whole world, but she seems to want specifics, since she'll follow up my answer with, "Is he 30 feet tall? 60 feet?" Yesterday, she started asking when we were on our way to Bible study. I suggested that she ask Mr. Mark (our pastor), if he happened to be in the room already when I dropped my stuff off. He wasn't, and I totally forgot about the issue when I took her to the nursery. When I picked her up, her first question was, "Can we go find Mr. Mark now and ask him about God?" I needed to pick up something in the main church building anyway, and when we passed Mark's office door, it was open, so I stuck my head in and asked him if Maggie could ask a quick question.

His answer was more complicated than I would have thought to give, but she seemed to understand it just fine. He told her that it was a hard question to answer since we tend to think of God as being just like us -- with a body -- and He's more than that. He told her God doesn't really have a body, and instead told her to imagine a big cloud that surrounds the world. God is everywhere, just like that big cloud, he said. He's at our church, and at our house, and downtown with Daddy at work, and at the beach where we just vacationed. He told her it was a great question and said he hoped she'd continue asking questions about God and about lots of other things. As we left, her little fact lit up and she said, "I know how tall God is now!!" This morning, she reminded me that God doesn't really have a body, that he's like a big cloud and can be everywhere. I am impressed at how she picked this up! :-)

followup to this story: On Wednesday night at church, Maggie preschool teacher stopped me and said, "I have to tell you what Maggie said at lunch today!" Maggie was sitting next to her friend Gigi, and out of the blue she said, "Gigi, did you know that God doesn't have a body? He's like a great big cloud, and He is everywhere in the world. He always takes care of us." Dana said her heart just melted to hear Maggie telling her friend about God.