Scooped

Last week I was with my children in a restaurant. My six year old son asked if he could say the blessing.

“Sure you can,” I replied.

We held hands and he started to pray.

“God is good, God is awesome. Thanks for the food, I would be even more thankful if Mommy would order some ice cream for us as dessert. Freedom and justice for all! Amen.”

The people around who could hear the prayer started to laugh.

One lady said, “These youth! Children today do not know how to pray and today’s parents are not able to teach them. It is inappropriate to beg God for some ice cream.”

When my son heard this he started crying.

“Is God now mad with me?”

I calmed him down and assured him that God would understand his prayer properly and would not be angry with him.

Meanwhile, a man from the next table came and laid his hand on my son’s little head. He smiled at the boy.

“I am sure that God loved your prayer.”

“Really?” my son asked.

“I swear it” said the man as he continued speaking with a theatrical whisper so that the other lady would hear him.

“It is very sad that that lady never asked God for some ice cream, because ice cream is good for our soul.”

You can be sure that I then ordered ice cream for my children for dessert.

My son looked at his ice cream cone and did something I shall never forget.

Without a single word, he carefully lifted his ice cream and went to the lady at the next table. He put the bowl of ice cream in front of the lady, smiled at her, looked her in the eyes.

“Here” he said, “this is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul and my soul is already good.”

- Traugott Fränkle