My wife and my youngest daughter are recovering from a cold at the moment. My oldest daughter brought the disease home with her from preschool (we think) about a week ago and it has been cycling through the family. At the moment, I have yet to get sick, but I’m not holding my breath that I won’t.
All that to say that my eldest daughter and I went to church on Sunday by ourselves. Since one-on-one church time is rare as we normally attend family-style, my daughter was a bit more interactive than she would otherwise have been.
The sermon was an introduction to a series about why people attend church, and the pastor asked some questions to the parish and encouraged us to speak up with our answers. To the question, “What is something you like about coming to church?” most people gave the answers that you would expect to hear in church:
- I like learning about God.
- I like worship.
- I enjoy giving back.
- And so on.
My own answer wasn’t as spiritual, but it was honest. I like going to church to see my friends and to see what is going on in their lives. (Not that I don’t like those other things too, but I knew that other people would say those things.)
I asked my eldest what she liked about coming to church and she answered, “I like that there are books here.” So even if she isn’t spiritually-minded yet, at least she appreciates a place that provides books to read.
And since books are kind of a big thing in Christianity (John 1:1), I don’t think she’s that far off.