I just have to share…here are some highlights of the hour-long conversation that my 10 year old daughter (aptly named Faith) and I had after this first episode of Oprah’s Belief series tonight. She has always been an old soul and a deep thinker. She asked many questions while we watched, and when the show ended, she sat silent with wet, red eyes. When I asked her if she was ok, she said yes. I asked her if she was sad, she said no, that she felt just….full. I told her I completely understand.
So as we talked in her room, she started by saying she thinks all the time about deep things, that’s why she’s easily distracted, even in the morning getting dressed or deciding what to eat for breakfast. She said she and her friend want to write a book while they are still kids about what they believe, so that people know that kids can do things even though they are just kids. I asked her to give me three of her beliefs that come to mind. Here’s what she said:
1. God loves us all
2. We are all connected
3. We became disconnected, and started treating each other meanly, but God really just wants us to understand that we are all one.
She told me her favorite quote (which I know because its hanging on her bedroom wall) is “Unless someone like you cares a whole, awful lot, nothing is going to get better. Its not.” ~Dr. Suess
She then went on to say (and this really blew my mind because it is what I have always believed, but have never been able to articulate it so clearly) “I think that we are all connected. We are all pieces of a large puzzle. That large puzzle is God. The shape of our puzzle piece is formed by our culture and experiences, and the colors on our piece represent what our strengths are. For example, handicapped people need to have lots of patience. I have lots of love in my heart. Each person has a different strength, like love, patience, curiosity, etc. But the entire puzzle is simply God.”
Holy Cow.
Then she said to me: “Do you know why God created the world? Because he just wanted someone to love.”
Profound. And simple. Profoundly simple.
She finished by saying “I wish that everyone in the world could figure out why they are here, what their purpose is. Can you imagine what the world would be like then?”
Well, can you?