DOES GOD LIKE PEAS?

We have a favorite snack time prayer at Preschool.  It goes like this.

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Thank you God for feeding me. 

When I have lunch every week with my grandsons, Henrik and Karl,  we say the same prayer before lunch and Karl, the two year old, immediately asks, “Does God love peas?”

“I think so, Karl,”  I say.  “God made peas.  I’m sure he likes them.”  And off we go eating our lunch, thankful that God loves peas.  It’s good to be thankful for something every day!

I recall a time a year or so ago when there was a Face Book challenge going around asking face bookers  to list three things each day for a week they were thankful for.  Twice I took the challenge and I finished the week feeling blessed to have so much good happening in my life.  In a day full of negative and discouraging news about hurricanes battering our coast line, political candidates bantering each other with accusations of dishonesty, shootings in neighborhoods close to our homes and hunger on our streets as so many of us prepare to over- eat at our Thanksgiving tables, listing three positive things a day helped keep my perspective on life in balance.  Yes, there is still good happening in the world!  

The little details of our daily lives go unnoticed most days but they are the very details that are God’s miracles, sent as evidence of God’s presence with us.  As I was working in the Preschool garden, gathering the last of the produce and pulling the dying plants, I noticed the earth worms and the richness of the soil that sustained our garden.  What a blessing that dirt is to our preschoolers and the hungry who benefit from the veggies grown here.  I was thankful for the many Preschool families who helped care for our garden over the summer and our church who encouraged us to create this garden dream of ours!  As teachers, our school staff delights in watching so many of the children  laughing and playing with toys, many of which were donated from church members who once watched their own beloved children play with these very toys.  They wanted to pass the love along.  At school, we take our Preschool classes outside to walk among the trees behind Salem to reach the park.  The trees are changing from green to yellow, orange and red.  The children’s eyes fill with wonder.  Leaves float gently down, twirling in the wind and landing on their heads and jackets.  It makes them giggle and twirl in mimicked excitement.  I’m thankful to be there witnessing this delight!  

These little details of my day help me escape the negatives around me.  God is good and so are the people and things he has created, even peas.  Out of curiosity, one day, after our A-B-C Prayer and the usual question, I decided to ask Karl to say the prayer for me.  He did.

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Thank you God for making peas!

Now I understand the question.  Yes, Karl and I are thankful for peas and for feeding “me,”  and all the little details of our lives that make God’s presents known to us.  I challenge  you to join Henrik, Karl and the your preschooler thanking God for little details of your day that make you smile or wonder about things.  It will make you and your Thanksgiving happy!