An opening

Interesting developments at my house around religion in the last couple of days.

My oldest daughter (7, soon to be 8, but precocious in many ways) professes to be "not sure" what she believes about God and religion, "like Mommy." She has recently become friends with a Jewish boy in her class. He has been given the opportunity to share some of the traditions of Judaism (e.g. festival days, food regulations, fasts) with their second-grade class now and then, and my daughter has always eaten it up.

Last night when my wife was driving her home from the restaurant where they grabbed dinner, my daughter told her that she "wanted to be Jewish." Of course we thought it was mostly because she wanted participate in the "different" holidays and fasts and what have you. But later, when her mother was putting her to bed, she expressed an interest in learning how to pray. (This is not really something we do at my house as a family.) So my wife called me upstairs and we all shared a short prayer. Yeah, it was pretty shallow. And yeah, it was awkwardly syncretic as my wife was simultaneously trying to explain her own informal system of meditation or internal "prayer". But it was an opening. And this morning she tried to help her little sister (four years old) say a prayer, too; and she reiterated her interest in Judaism, which I take as a step in the right direction.

Now here's the thing: I'm a cradle-Protestant Christianoid who's frankly unsure how far to trust the Church, or any church (though I try to confess Christ as God before my children when the subject of religion comes up.) But I do pray privately, and of late I have asked Jesus, Mary, and Saints Monica and Thomas More to work on my family, to draw us all to Christ and the Sacraments. It could be coincidence. It feels like an experience of answered prayer, or the beginning of an answer, and I thank God and all who have prayed for us.

I have an opening. Or, please God, He has an opening. This morning I pointed my daughter to the Old Testament as an obvious place to start learning about Judaism, but the only editions of the Bible I have to hand her are decidedly geared toward adults. So if anybody's reading this, please help me out with your suggestions! Ideally I need a Bible translation/edition (or maybe a collection of Bible stories?) that an academically-gifted 8-year-old will find grown-up enough to feel authentic-- she thinks she's too old for picture books, and anyway I want it to have some gravitas for her-- but it needs to be accessible enough that it doesn't require excessive fortitude to read through. Maps would be nice. Any ideas?

And if anybody who reads this blog has been praying for my family, please please PLEASE keep it up. I need all the help I can get.