Train Tracks of Peace

In church on Sunday, our pastor preached on peace. Turns out that she and other leaders in the denomination have been invited to Rome, Italy in a few weeks to attend a conference dealing with the theological dimensions of peace. As part of her presentation, she wanted to take pictures draw by the children in our church that represented what peace meant to them. So, for the children's story, Sam's Sunday School teacher read a book on peace and then marched all the kids upstairs to draw their pictures.

During the offering, the children marched back in with their drawings to present them to the church and to God. When Joy and I saw Sam march in with a Thomas train in his hands we knew what might be up and when we glimpsed his picture (which featured what were certainly a set of rails), Joy leaned over to me and whispered, "Looks like Sam drew the train tracks of peace."

We didn't know the half of it.

During the luncheon that followed church, all the pictures were on display, so we went by to peruse them. There was the five-year-old's tree where she went to read and watch the clouds, there was the four-year-old's new puppy. There was the forcefield protecting the intergalactic spaceship, and there was the garbage truck. Yes, in addition to drawing the Thomas the Train of peace, Sam drew the garbage truck of peace as well.

I suppose his drawing has a certain logic. A world where garbage is always picked up is certainly a world at peace. But I think Sam just wanted to draw a big garbage truck and so he did. an next month, the picture will be hanging in Rome.

It's a better debut than any of my pictures ever had.