I Dreamed I had an Interview with God  

“So you would like to interview me?” God asked
“If you have the time” I said.
God smiled
“My time is eternity”
“What questions do you have in mind for me?”

“What surprises you most about humankind?...”
God answered...

“That they get bored with childhood.
They rush to grow up and then
long to be children again.”
“That they lose their health to make money
and then lose their money to restore their health.”
“That by thinking anxiously about the future,
they forget the present,
such that they live in neither
the present nor the future.”
That they live as if they will never die,
and die as if they had never lived.”
God’s hand took mine
and we were silent for awhile
And then I asked...

“As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons
you want your children to learn?”

God replied with a smile
“To learn they cannot make anyone love them.
What they can do is let themselves be loved.”
“To learn that it is not good
to compare themselves to others.”
“To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most,
but is one who needs the least.”
“To learn that it only takes a few seconds
to open profound wounds in persons we love,
and it takes many years to heal them.”
“To learn to forgive by
practicing forgiveness.”
“To learn that there are persons who love them dearly,
but simply do not know how to express or show
their feelings.”
“To learn that two people
can look at the same thing
and see it differently.”
“To learn that it is not always enough that they
be forgiven by others. But that they must
forgive themselves.”
“And to learn that I am here
always.”