We were doing the bedtime routine one night when my daughter asked me, “Mommy, why am I brown and you are white?”
There are probably plenty of reasons.
So, I was thinking about it, and I imagined this:
God and Michael and Gabriel are hanging out up in heaven when the model for me was brought out for God’s approval. Just then St. Peter walks in. He sees me.
“What is this? Is this the Cheri Rivera model? Who did this? This is crazy! You cannot take that model and make her brown! That’s way too much sass in one woman. I’ll take her back and change her!” and he walks away leading the model, muttering to himself about the inept designers.
Michael turns and looks at God. “You think we should tell him that sass doesn’t depend on color?”
God, raising his eyebrows at Peter’s retreating back.
“You want me to explain women to a man?”
Gabriel, also watching Peter walk away, “He doesn’t have time for that.”
Michael, “Oh, right.”
But my daughter is only four, and loves rainbows and unicorns. Well, pretty much anything related to My Little Pony. So, I remind her about rainbows and how when we see them we try to see if all the shades are there, and how happy we are when there are a lot of them and we can see them all. I tell her we got that from God. That God put that appreciation for all those different colors side by side like that in us as a gift. And then we both tried to imagine how happy God must be when he looks at all of us and we are standing side by side, all our different colors and shapes and abilities united, and I said maybe that is what a rainbow looks like to God.
And then she asked if her bedtime song could be Confident (Demi Lovato). I suggested Brahms’ Lullaby and we compromised with “You Are My (Confident) Sunshine”. I love her sass!