Monday, July 21, 2014

Story of the day - "Not actually"

Brigid was four and came into the kitchen as I was making dinner making stir fry on the stove. Behind me was the Hoosier Cabinet on which sat the cookie jar. Brigid asked me if she could have a cookie and I said she could after dinner which I was just making and we would be eating in five minutes.

As I continued adding ingredients to the stir fry I heard the top come off the cookie jar and I turned around and said evenly, "Brigid what are you doing?"

She said with a guilty expression, "Nothing daddy."

I said, "Yes, you are. You're taking a cookie."

She said to me very seriously, "Not actually."

I had to stop myself from laughing. Where, at age four, had she learned this word, "actually" and used it correctly in a sentence to minimize, if not eliminate, her culpability?

I can imagine God saying to any one of us, "And why have you polluted the earth with plastic water bottles, plastic shopping bags, and exhaust from SUVs, Hummers, and all sorts of combustion engines?"

And we, of course, would plea ignorance, saying we didn't know the consequences, and God will say, "But having learned the consequences, you have continued with your harmful ways." And we will say, like four year old Brigid, "Not actually." and we will each have our excuse about why we continued with the rape and pillage of Mother Nature.

I don't know if God, like me, will attempt to stifle a laugh at our naivete, but let us pray that He extends some matter of mercy for our sins, and treats us like innocent four year old children and not like responsible adults.

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful story! Thank you.

    We do act like naive and innocent children and will do what we do until a parent catches us and holds us accountable. As I look around me I don't find many adults. Where, please tell, are the grown-ups?

    ReplyDelete

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