If We're Not Christian...
September 3, 2007
by Jeffrey Pierce
"Dad?" my eight year old daughter, Sparrow, asked. "If we're not Christian, what are we?"
"Sweetie," I replied. "You don't have a name for your path. You haven't decided what you want to be yet - and that's totally okay."
Sparrow considered the concept for a moment. "I guess that's okay."
"You know what you believe, right?" I prodded.
She nodded. "I believe God is everything." It's a concept that Sparrow discovered on her own and a perspective she's held for years.
"Do you feel like you need a name to call that?"
"Not really," she agreed.
Bear piped up. "What about me?
I gently teased him. "You haven't decided what you believe."
Bear, who is six, looked for just a moment as if he thought I was teasing him - and then he realized that I was right.
He laughed. "That's right," Bear offered up in his jovial way. "I don't know what I believe."
"And that's totally fine too," I assured him. "What we believe is a very personal thing. It doesn't matter if you have a name for it, if you believe something but aren't sure what you believe," I added, looking to Sparrow, "Or if you're still figuring things out," I finished, meeting Bear's gaze.
The kids agreed and, without another word on the topic, ran off to play.