God Did It
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My wife and I took our three sons to the beach this year.
I took my middle son out in the water with me as my wife played in the sand with the other two.
I picked him up as we entered waters that approached my kneecaps. I held him close to my chest because the water chilled our bones too much for either of us to hold our own body heat.
As I held him, my eyes gently rested on the endless expanse of waves that rolled along the surface ever so rhythmically.
My eyes then drifted higher to the invisible line that separates the ocean from the sky with exactness. I then beheld the beauty of the sky and everything that it contained. It seemed like time had stopped and the only two people on earth were my son John and I. At that moment, I had the realization that this would be a great time for a lesson in life.
This was John's first time in the ocean and I knew that there were certain things that even school couldn't teach him. John was only two years old, I knew his mind would be highly impressionable at this age considering his logic faculties had not been fully developed yet.
Father started with the first lesson on the beach of life.
I said John, "Do you see all of this water, who do you think created the ocean?"
Before I taught him I just wanted to see what kind of childish, cartoon minded answer he would give me. He looked out over all of the countless waves (even though countless in his little mind was anything over ten) and surveyed the landscape.
Little did I know that my two year old was about to give me an untaught answer, that half of the professors at Harvard would have disagreed with. He answered not even in his normal answering tone, where the answer comes out with such a degree of doubt that it sounds like a question. With all the force of his little lungs he shouted out three little but powerful words with such confidence that it reverberated down the
beach.
"God did it."
Even though I was the teacher and had years of training through an engineering degree at one of the nation's top schools, there was no more that I could add to this preschooler's answer.
So I went on to the next question.
"John do you see that blue space above the water that we called the sky, who do you think created that."
As he looked up and again considered the vastness of the space, he again shouted out:
"God did it."
Again, there was nothing I could add to his answer. I brought my son out here and was experiencing a moment of inspiration. I was the daddy and he was the son; I was determined to teach him something. So I went on to my third question.
"Okay John, those are very big things and yes God did create them, but do you see that small little bird flying right above our heads, who do you think created it."
Almost before I could muster a smile from the satisfaction of finally being able to teach my son something, out shot the answer:
"God did it."
I figured for my last question I'd better get a little tricky with him. I guessed that since he knew I was his father and he knew that I had something to do with him getting in this world, not to mention I was holding him up from the dangerous water since he couldn't swim. With a scholar's pride, I asked my final question.
"John who created you?"
"God did it."
I asked no more questions that day. That day I was the student, the learner. I learned that some answers are already within us.
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