Jon Gauger has witnessed enough amusing interactions to know the truth – kids say the wisest things! In his new book, the talented storyteller relays some of the most entertaining, heartwarming and spiritually rich stories he’s seen and heard involving the youngest among us.
One of those tales features little Emma Lynn expressing her belief that, ‘God is one cool dude!’.
“It’s a beautiful setting with this lake and all these long needle pine trees. It’s early in the morning, and Emma is up early. There she is snuggled up with her mom out on the porch in a rocking chair. She looks out and says, ‘Mom – did God make those trees?’ And mom says, ‘Yeah He sure did.’ And she says, ‘Well good.'”
“There’s a lot of sand on this property, and she calls it her sandbox. She says, ‘Did God make that sandbox there? Did he make my sandbox?’ ‘He sure did.'”
This thoughtful line of questioning led to a memorable declaration.
“Emma’s kind of quiet and then she says, ‘Wow! God is one cool dude!'”
“And some of us as adults might feel that’s a tad bit casual as far as speech goes, but that’s entirely appropriate for a little two year old! But the flip side of this is that many of us limit our definition of God’s grander design to the big things. Full moons, a sunset – and those are great! But the majesty and glory of God are as evident on the back of a ladybug, or a helicopter maple seed as they are in a climb up Mount Everest or a hike to the redwoods.”
“So I think we need to learn from Emma, and learn to see the glory of God in common things. Common things because God is seen there as much as He is in the so-called great things. We need to learn to ponder His otherness. To whisper His infinite-ness. And invite Him to teach us to tremble. Because in Emma’s words, ‘God is one cool dude!'”
Jon Gauger is a veteran radio storyteller with the Moody Radio Network. He’s also a celebrated voice over artist. His new book is Kids Say the Wisest Things: 26 Lessons You Didn’t Know Children Could Teach You.
On the Road with Jon Gauger
