What is God?  by Danny (a third grader)

   Taken from a paper published by the First Christian Church. 305. W.
California Ave. Vista, CA 92083-3595

   What is God?

   (For a written class assignment, a third grade teacher asked her
students to explain "God". This is one perspicacious response from
Danny Dutton, who attends the First Christian Church of Chula Vista.
Danny is eight years old.)

   "One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes these to put in
place of the ones that die so there will be enough people to take care
of things here 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 up to the mothers and fathers. I think it works out
pretty good.

   God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful
lot of this goes on, as some people, like preachers and things, pray
other times besides bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the
radio or T.V. on account of this. As He hears everything, not only
prayers, there must be a terrible lot of noise going into 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 parents head and ask 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 doing miracles and trying to teach people about God who
didn't want to learn. They finally got tired of Him preaching to them
and they crusified 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 ok. His Dad (God) appreciated everything 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 which
things are important for God to take care of and which ones He can take
care of Himself without having to bother God with. Like a secretary,
only more important, of course. You can pray anytime you want and they
are sure to hear you because they've got it worked out so one of them
is on duty all the time.

   You should always go to Sunday School because it makes God happy,
and if anybody you want to make happy, it's God. Don't skip Sunday
School to do something you think will be more fun like going to the
beach. That is wrong. And beside 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's good to know He's around when you're scared of
the dark or when you can't swim very good and you get thrown in real
deep water by big kids. But you shouldn't think always 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.

   Contributed by The Manna System

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