Omar’s Philosophical Musings

“Naomi, do you know how big is God?” Omar’s eyes widen to stretched halfway down his face, as they always do when he tries to educate me about something.

“Omar, I have no idea.”

“Have you seen the Mickey Mouse who stands on big wooden sticks outside MacDonald’s? The one who is as tall as the rooftop?

“Yes?”

“Well, God is bigger even than that Mickey Mouse.” Here Omar stops and looks at me to gauge if I have grasped the enormity of the size.

“Wow! That’s really big.”

“But you see God is so much bigger. He is as big as the distance between America and Pakistan…that is, the distance from the gates of America to the gates of Pakistan.” Omar looks at me triumphantly with the accumulated wisdom of four years shining through his eyes.

I don’t say anything and just widen my eyes to somehow match the area covered by Omar’s eyes, and fail miserably.

“And He was there even before our house and the road outside were built,” Omar tells me.

“Omar, that must be really long ago.”

“Yes, He was there even before you were born. And He lives in the sky, you know,” Omar educates me further.

Here he stops and contemplates for a while and then asks, “What do you think how did God get there, I mean up in the sky?”

“Omar I am afraid I don’t know. But if, as you tell me, He is so big, then reaching the sky shouldn’t be a problem, no?

“Yes.” He thinks again for a while and comes up with, “Do you know who made God?”

“No, I don’t.”

Here Omar makes peace with my limited intellect and asks a simpler question, “I am feeling hungry. Could you cut a mango for me, in cubes?”

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