In the spirit of the season

My daughter has been learning about hibernation at school recently. She learned that some of the smaller animals that hibernate die when they try to revive themselves from hibernation. This information has ignited a curiosity about death and god in her. At first she wanted to know if we would die when it got cold, then she wanted to know if god is a boy or a girl (neither) and what Allah (god) looked like (light upon light) . Tonight at dinner she brought the two concepts together asked me when will god die? I told her never.

My son who was listening in on the conversation said that this could not be true, everyone and everything dies. I explained that god is like a tree and all other living things are like the leaves on the tree. Every spring the leaves sprout on the tree and every autumn they turn color, fall of the tree and die, but the tree itself does not die, it lives on through winter to sprout new leaves in the spring.

My son nodded in agreement. He went on to say that we are a straight line and god is a circle. I asked him what he meant. He explained that we are born and then we are kids and then we are pre-teens and then we are teenagers and then we are adults and then we die. This is a straight line, but god just goes on and on like a circle. We have to pray and be good and god will take us into the circle when we die.

It was a profound moment. I felt that I was in the presence of someone very wise and witnessing a spiritual birth at the same time.