Out of the mouths of babes, part the thousandth.

As we were learning about the Christmas story in the older Sunday School group, I decided to make some Old Testament-New Testament links by using the book The Animals' Christmas, which makes links between the Nativity and Isaiah 11 (the Peaceable Kingdom).  The book concludes with a group of animals, both predators and prey, around the manger (see picture).  I finished reading, and started the wondering questions by saying "I wonder what you can see in this picture."  I hoped they would start naming the animals, leading us to a discussion of the fact that there were animals both eating and eaten around the manger, and thus to a discussion of Jesus as the prince of peace.

This is what happened instead.

"God," one kid said.

"You can't see God," someone else said.  "How do you know he's there?"

"Can you see love, or hope?" I asked.

"Maybe the beam of light is God," the original child responded.