On The Journey Toward Celebrating Life

One evening when our family went with parishioners to serve dinner at a shelter for persons who are homeless, our youngest son, Nicholas, who was five at the time, wandered around the large room of people at tables and seemed to soak in the experience.
The next morning Nicholas came to me and asked, "Mum, does God choose people's eye colour and skin colour?" I easily responded, "Yes." Nicholas continued, "Does God choose the clothes that people wear?" I did not reply right away, trying to think of a good approach for a response. Nicholas then asked, "Does God make people poor or do we make people poor?"
I was taken aback by this profound question and gathered my thoughts to sit down and talk with Nicholas. We talked about God's love for all people and our responsibility to see that all people are able to celebrate life fully, with all their basic needs met. No, God does not make people poor, human decisions and human structures do. Our decisions to act in loving response to others is a channel of God's love for all. Together we can celebrate life more fully!

- Andrea Shappel