More kiddy talk. But with reasoning and maturity.

Some time ago, I had posted here about my niece Divya's interest in a power above.
Looks like she is quite serious about religion, which is not a bad thing. Irrespective of what religion we all belong to, it is always good to have faith in a power above and to spend some
time in conversation with God, be it in a temple or church or any other place of worship.

Inspite of my sister and brother-in-law's lukewarm attitude to religion, Divya somehow is
quite serious about the whole God thing. She drags them to church on Sundays, which they
had not been doing for a long time. She also started attending Sunday school (sort of Bible classes for kids).

As she learns stuff in Sunday school, she also gets more doubts. Sample this.

Last Sunday, she was told about the incident in the Bible, where Jesus feeds a huge crowd
of people (5000 or so) with just a few loaves of bread and some fish, that his disciples had
with them. It is supposed to be a miracle that Jesus did and I am guessing that the teacher
at Sunday school used this incident to bring out the miraculous power of God.

So, Divya comes back home and tells her Mom about what she learnt at Sunday school.

Divya : Amma, the teacher told us the story about Jesus feeding 5000 people with just a
few loaves of bread and a few fish.

Amma : Wow, that's good.

Divya : Amma, I know that God is powerful and it is easy for Him to do such a miracle.
Feeding 5000 people with such a small amount of food should be easy for God.

Amma : Yes, God is capable of miracles.

Divya: While I do believe in God and my heart accepts what I learn in Sunday school,
there is a small problem.

Amma : What is that ? (Oh, oh, trouble starting.)

Divya : Inspite of my belief, there is this Satan lurking inside me who sort of taunts by
asking how it is humanely possible for a person to feed such a big crowd with a few fish
and bread ?

Amma : Hmmmm.

Divya : And you know what? This Satan also asks how there could be such a lot of leftovers
after the people had their fill. (As per the Bible, after the people had eaten, the leftovers
collected were enough to fill many baskets.)

Amma: Hmmm. That is where faith comes in. You have to just have faith and believe.

I am sure my sister would have found it tough to answer these seemingly kiddy, but serious questions. I for one am happy that Divya understands the concept of good (God)
and evil (Satan) and the constant conflict between the two.

While I am happy that my niece believes in a power above, all I hope is that she also
grows up being tolerant of other religions and the people practising them. I would not
want her to grow up with any "My religion is the best. My God is the only true one."
kind of attitude.

May atleast her generation grow up imbibing the good things in all religions and avoid
fighting each other in the name of religion.

P.S. : I am sure my sister will have quite some explaining to do when the Sunday School
teacher tells Divya's class about Jesus bringing back to life a person who died. :-)