Friday, June 21, 2013

It Doesn't Really Matter What You Call God

I have come to the conclusion it doesn't matter what names we use for God. After all, we are not any smarter than four-year-old kids when it comes to the spiritual world. Four-year-olds don't know the names for things. And that is all right. A story by Robert Fulghum says it all.



"See, what happened was that I got packed off to Sunday School at around age four, and the first thing I learned was the Lord’s Prayer, which begins, 'Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed by Thy name.' And what I heard was 'Our Father, which art in heaven, HOWARD be thy name.'

And since little kids tend to mutter their prayers anyway, nobody realized what I was saying, so I went right on believing that God’s name was Howard. And that I was a member of His family—the Howards. 

Since I was also told that my grandfather had died and gone to heaven, God and my grandfather got all mixed up in my mind as one and the same. Which meant that I had a pretty comfy notion about God. When I knelt beside my bed each night and prayed, 'Our Father, which art in heaven, Howard by thy name,' I thought about what a big shot he was . . . I went to bed feeling pretty connected to the universe for a long time."  --Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten

Art by Banksy.
 

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