God's Pool

At Mass this morning, a guest priest asked for prayers for our country, that we might stand firm and protest same-sex marriage and abortion. My sons, standing on either side of me, turned their handsome faces up in confusion.

Huh?

"Does he mean boys can't marry boys? Mummy, you said they could."

For a moment, I could say nothing. My youngest Red is a week away from receiving his First Communion, which is essentially, being invited to sit at the Lord's table.

 I walked away from it for many, many years but found that I was drawn back to the ritual and community, especially when I became a parent. I have sometimes wondered at the wisdom of returning to a church whose ideas I do not wholly embrace, nor support. Some, I outright defy.

This is one of them.

"Some people believe that only men and women should marry," I finally whispered, "But I don't. I think God wants you to love who you love and that's that."

"But can we still come here if you think that? For my communion? I'm learning all the songs, even though the words are hard."

In my mind, I pictured myself gathering up my children and making a big show of huffing from the pew and into the aisle, incensed and hollering, "MY God welcomes everyone to His table!" and then storming out. Alas, I am not that brave, so instead, I sat when I should have remained standing and tugged them in close to me.

"God says that whenever two or more people get together and sing about Him and pray to Him and enjoy their time together, He's hanging out, too. Invisibly. And He loves us. Period. Full-stop. Forever. So, yes, we can come here. Especially since you're learning all the songs."

"But...why did the priest say that?" This from my oldest, the champion of "Why?" questions that make my head hurt.

"Because he believes it. Because it scares him. Because the world is a different place than it used to be, when men couldn't marry men and women couldn't marry women. He's sort of...stuck there."

"But who's right?"

"Who do you think is right?"

"You."

"Why do you think I'm right?"

"Because you said that if we want to marry a man then you'd be ok with that because it means you get to have more sons to love. And God helped us choose you to be our mummy and so if He chooses us to marry a man, He's really choosing you for them, too. Or them for you. Kind of. Do you know what I mean?"

I closed my eyes, offered up a silent prayer of thanks for these tiny souls. "Yes. Yes, I do. Now let Mummy pray here, ok?"

"Ok," my youngest again, tugging impatiently on my arm, "Can you pray that the person I marry has a pool?

I opened up one eye. "A pool?"

"Yeah. God would probably want me to have a pool. And a diving board to practice flips. I bet He's choosing that for me right now. I just have to wait and find out."

I guess we all will.

That God. He's so funny.