Chapter 16 - THE THINGS CHILDREN INHERITThe family meeting took place on a Thursday evening.
No church event.
No audience.
No denominational representatives.
Just eight people in the Monroes' living room:
Elena.
Daniel.
Clara.
Rachel.
Mark.
Noah.
Thomas Avery.
And June Bennett, who had invited herself after hearing about “the famous question list.”
Clara sat cross-legged on the rug.
Noah sat beside her.
Thomas held the paper.
“I've been informed that adults do not answer good.”
Noah corrected him.
“That's the old title.”
“What is it now?”
Clara held up a new sheet.
QUESTIONS ADULTS SHOULD TRY TO ANSWER HONESTLY
Thomas nodded.
“Much less insulting.”
“Mom made us change it.”
“Of course.”
Elena smiled.
“We wanted to tell you both something first.”
Clara looked up.
“What?”
Elena sat beside her.
“When your legs were weak, I prayed because I loved you and I was afraid.”
Clara nodded.
“I believed God was with us.”
“I know.”
“I still believe that.”
Clara looked at Rachel.
Rachel said:
“I believe the same about Noah.”
Noah nodded.
Rachel continued.
“But I think both of us sometimes talked about those experiences with more certainty than we actually had.”
Noah frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Mark answered.
“It means adults sometimes tell a story after something happens and make it sound simpler than it felt while we were living through it.”
June nodded.
“That's basically all family history.”
Thomas smiled.
Elena continued.
“There were doctors. Therapy. Treatment. Time. Your own work.”
Clara looked at her legs.
“And prayer.”
“Yes.”
“Can I believe God helped?”
“Yes.”
“Can Noah?”
“Yes.”
“Does that prove Catholicism?”
Elena took a breath.
“No.”
Clara looked surprised by the directness.
“Does Noah getting better prove Baptists are right?”
Rachel answered.
“No.”
The children looked at each other.
Noah said:
“That makes more sense.”
Mark shifted in his chair.
“I want to say something too.”
Noah looked at his father.
“I grew up hearing things about Catholics that weren't always fair.”
Elena looked at him.
Mark continued:
“Not from bad people. Mostly from people repeating what they'd heard.”
“Did you believe them?” Noah asked.
“Some.”
“Do you still?”
“Some things I was taught were misunderstandings.”
“Which things?”
Mark smiled.
“That's another meeting.”
Clara looked at Daniel.
“Did you hear bad things about Baptists?”
Daniel sighed.
“Yes.”
“Like what?”
“Another meeting.”
The children groaned.
Thomas laughed.
June spoke.
“When I was young, my family thought asking certain questions meant your faith was weak.”
Noah stared at her.
“You ask everything.”
“That's why.”
The room became quiet.
June continued.
“It took me a long time to learn that pretending I had no questions didn't make my faith stronger. It just made me better at pretending.”
Elena looked at Clara.
Children inherited traditions.
Names.
Stories.
But they also inherited the unexamined fears of adults.
Unless adults stopped the transfer.
Thomas held up the list.
“Question three: Can two people disagree and still both be good?”
“Yes,” Noah said immediately.
Clara nodded.
“Obviously.”
Thomas looked at the adults.
“You hear that?”
Rachel smiled.
“They solved one.”
Thomas read the next.
“Why do adults say ‘it's complicated’ when they don't know?”
Every adult laughed.
Elena raised her hand.
“Guilty.”
Rachel too.
Then Mark.
Then Daniel.
June lifted both hands.
Thomas said:
“Sometimes it truly is complicated.”
Noah crossed his arms.
“And sometimes?”
Thomas smiled.
“Sometimes adults are embarrassed to say they don't know.”
Clara looked at Elena.
“You aren't anymore.”
Elena felt something move inside her.
Not embarrassment.
Relief.
“No.”
The meeting ended with no theological breakthrough.
No conversion.
No dramatic reconciliation.
Just pizza and questions.
As the Bennetts prepared to leave, Clara pulled Noah aside.
“Ask it again next Sunday.”
“What?”
“The first question.”
“Which mom is right?”
She nodded.
“Why?”
“Because I think they'll answer different now.”
Noah looked toward their parents.
“So which one do you think is right?”
Clara smiled.
“I don't know.”
May you like
Noah grinned.
For the first time, neither child sounded frightened by those words.
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