this piece was written on january 11, 2004 - to be read as the children's story at my church that morning. it is the more-or-less true story of how i explained different truths to my four-year-old son.

once upon a time there was a little boy named jeffrey. he had lots of people he loved: friends and family. as he grew older, his mommy let him spend lots of time with the people he loved. sometimes some of them would take him to church, and sometimes some of them would talk to jeffrey about what they believed about god, and church, and heaven, and such. he was surprised to discover that many of the people he loved believed very different things! why, some of them didn’t even believe in god at all!

jeffrey started asking questions of the people he loved. he asked, “who is god?” he asked, “where is god?” he asked, “what happens when we die?” he asked, “where is heaven?”

many of jeffrey’s friends and family members gave him different answers to these questions. what made this even more confusing was that all of them seemed quite sure that their answers were the real ones. jeffrey wondered who was right. so he asked his mommy, because he was quite sure that his mommy knew the right answer to every question.

he said, “mommy, what is the truth? my grandma told me that god is jesus and that he lives in heaven. my friend suzie told me that there is no god. and my friend tammy told me that goddess is the earth. and you told me that i am god. who is wrong? who is right?”

jeffrey’s mommy smiled and said, “i’m very glad you asked me this. look up in the sky at the truth cloud.”

jeffrey looked up and saw a few clouds in the sky, but they didn’t look special, just like normal clouds, even that one over there that was shaped like a whale. “where is the truth cloud, mommy? i don’t see it.”

“don’t look with these eyes,” his mommy said, pointing to the only eyes jeffrey thought he had, “look with this one.” and she touched a spot in the middle of his forehead. suddenly the sky looked very different to jeffrey and he could see a big, beautiful cloud above him. it was swirling with all the colors of the most beautiful sunset. looking at it made him feel all funny like he couldn’t quite breathe right, but in a sort of good way. the cloud covered the whole sky and shimmered with a lovely light.

“ooooohhhhh,” breathed jeffrey.

his mommy smiled again and said, “that is the truth cloud. it is the whole truth. it is far too big for any of us to be able to see it all, or understand it all, or hold it all within ourselves. reach up and try to grab as much of the cloud as you can.”

jeffrey didn’t know how he could grab the cloud, because it seemed like it was very, very far away. but he reached up anyway, because he trusted his mommy. somehow the truth cloud was much closer than it seemed to be. he spread his arms wide and brought them together like a great big hug. he looked down and discovered a piece of the truth cloud was nestled in his hug, against his heart. he looked up and saw that there was no hole in the cloud where he had grabbed — it looked just as perfect as it had before.

now jeffrey’s mommy reached up and grabbed an armful of truth cloud. she said, “look at my truth. does it look the same as yours?” jeffrey looked at his mommy’s piece of the truth cloud. he could see swirling colors and tiny flashes of things that weren’t exactly pictures but that gave him ideas. then he looked at his own piece of the truth cloud. his truth also had beautiful swirling colors and tiny flashes of ideas, but they were different colors, swirling in different ways, and the ideas were just a bit different.

“no, mommy,” he said, “my truth is different than your truth.” a sudden flash of understanding crossed his face at the same time that his mommy said, “but they came from the same whole truth, didn’t they? now let’s share our truths with each other. i’ll give you a bit of mine, and you give me a bit of yours.”

jeffrey watched as his mommy pinched a little piece from her truth cloud and blew it from her fingertips toward him. it swirled in and blended with his cloud, and he watched as his truth changed just a bit. he could still see the colors and ideas that he knew were his truth, but there were some new colors and ideas that had come from his mommy’s truth. he took a bit of his cloud and blew it toward his mommy, and watched her truth changing to blend with his.

“you see, jeffrey,” said his mommy, “the whole truth is so very big that nobody can quite grasp it all. but if we each keep reaching for the truth, and keep sharing our truths with each other, we will all have truth in our lives. it’s okay if your truth doesn’t look like mine, or grandma’s, or suzie’s, or tammy’s. not everybody is ready to understand that truth works this way, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t. let each person have his or her truth, just as you have yours. everybody who is seeking truth with an open heart will find it.”

then jeffrey’s mommy did what she did every day of his whole life. she hugged him close and whispered in his ear, “thou art god.”

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