When she was barely two, Maddie Claire could sing Amazing Grace.  Perfect tune.  Amazing enunciation.  My choir director would have been proud of her consonants and vowel sounds.  We, knowing the song, and understanding with awe and reverence the theology, smiled and praised her musicality, realizing that most of the words were not words she attached meaning to other than for  the pleasure of singing them. Maddie turned four last week.   She uses her large vocabulary for more than singing and talking…she asks questions.  A lot of questions.  Since the birth of her baby sister, Jordann,  Maddie has been interested in the beginning and growing and arriving of babies, and last week asked her mother the time honored question about where babies come from. 
“Where was Jordann before she was in your tummy, Mommy?”   Her mother, knowing that Maddie was not ready for a total fact finding answer, wildly searched her database of acceptable answers and answered “the grace of God”.  Satisfied for the moment, Maddie went about her job of being a big sister, and, I imagine, Michala relaxed in  relief that the matter was tabled for the time being. 

 Today,  Maddie and her Daddy were painting a wall in the bedroom.  As she started to leave the room she told her Dad “If you need anything, just call my name.”  He answered, “What name should I call you?”   Maddie chided him, “You know my name, you have always known me since before I was in my mommy’s tummy.”  Jeremy continued, “ And where were you then?”

 To which Maddie solemnly replied, “I was swimming around in grace!”

 It could be that Maddie is growing in her theology.  Amazing.  Grace.