Imagination and illustration

The pictures are self-explanatory... I hope. It's a page out of Caitlin's moral lesson exercise book. As you can tell, her handwriting reflects her impatient and strong-minded character (sigh...) It made E and me laugh when we saw how she illustrated Ephesians 4:32. She loves drawing pictures in comic style, with those speech balloons and sound effects ("Piak" - the sound of someone being hit!).

Malaysian missing in Montana

Last week, I read news about a young Malaysian man who went hiking in a national park in Montana and has been reported missing. This came just a few days after I watched the movie version of Into The Wild, the book which I read and blogged about not too long ago.


Yi-Jien Hwa, 27, started his hike on August 11th and was due back a week later. Till now, he's yet to be found. He's a seminary student in Kentucky and from a family well known among the Methodist church circle back home. My heart goes out to his family as they continue to fast and pray and keep their faith and hopes up. Quite a few sites and blogs have news, sharing of thoughts and personal emails from his mum about what they're going through at this trying moment.

Explaining God

I received this in an email today which said that it was written by an 8-year-old boy named Danny Dutton, who lives in Chula Vista, CA. He wrote it for his third grade homework assignment, to 'explain God'.

I doubt I'd been able to explain it as well as him if I were given the task when I was eight years old.


EXPLANATION OF GOD :

'One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn't make grownups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn't have to take up his valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.'

'God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times beside bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because he hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears, unless he has thought of a way to turn it off.'

'God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting his time by going over your mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have.'

'Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista . At least there aren't any who come to our church.'

'Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work, like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of him preaching to them and they crucified him But he was good and kind, like his father, and he told his father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said O.K.'

'His dad (God) appreciated everything that he had done and all his hard work on earth so he told him he didn't have to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So he did. And now he helps his dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones he can take care of himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.'

'You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time.'

'You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God!

Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway.'

'If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared, in the dark or when you can't swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids.'

'But...you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and he can take me back anytime he pleases.

And...that's why I believe in God.'