The following was written by 8 years old Danny Dutton, who lives in Chula Vista, California, U.S.A. He wrote this for his third grade homework and I wonder if any of us could have done as well.

“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 grown ups, 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 walk and talk. 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 working 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 told his father that they didn’t know what they were doing and forgave them and God said it was 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 on the road anymore, he could just stay in heaven. So he did. And now he helps his dad 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 that 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 down to the beach. This is wrong. And besides, the sun doesn’t come out at the beach until noon anyway. And...That’s why I believe in God.

(Thanks to Fr Philip for sending me this story)