One Thursday before God had turned on the lights, I was up. I had procrastinated a little in my message preparation. Some tasks have to be put off many times before they slip your mind completely. By Thursday, the noon business lunch had completely slipped my mind.

I had just started to study when I heard the sound of little feet. My youngest, Breanne, who was 4 at the time, walked into the room. She sat right on my study materials. I suggested to Breanne that she go get in bed with Mom. “No,” was her answer.

“No? It is the middle of the night, and everyone is supposed to be in bed.”

“Why aren’t you in bed?” she asked. Kids spot the obvious quickly.

I told Breanne I had to get up early to study so that I could speak at noon.

“Mother always tells Angela and Kasey they have to do their homework before they go to bed,” she said. “You are probably going to be in big trouble.” Even 4-year-olds are good at pointing out other’s sins.

She was still sitting on the notes, offering to help me study. I told her she couldn’t read yet. She said, “I know some jokes.” She’d heard me speak before. She asked me what John the Baptist and Kermit the Frog had in common. I told her I didn’t know. She said they have the same middle name. I smiled.

Then she said, “I have a great idea. Mom said you would watch Winnie the Pooh with me.”

“Did she say I would watch it at 4 o’clock in the morning?”

“She said you would watch it with me when you had time, and it looks like we both have time, and no one will bother us.”

It was time to get spiritual. It was time to pull out God and get out of this. “Daddy has a meeting where I tell people about God, and if I don’t study I won’t have anything to tell them. So you go to bed and I’ll study so people can hear about God.”

“I have a better idea,” she said. “You watch Winnie the Pooh with me and see that he is a lot like God. He listens to the children and spends time with them. He teaches them to do right. So you watch the video with me and I’ll let you take it with you and you can show the people the tape and tell them that’s how God wants them to act.”

She was a little ahead of her time with videos and sermons, and I wish I could tell you I had enough fortitude to play Winnie the Pooh to the business lunch, but I did tell them about Pooh and what I learned.

That night, when Breanne said her prayers, she thanked God for Winnie the Pooh and “oh yeah, my dad.” That night I felt I was in pretty good company. I also learned that if you can’t relate God to the world people live in, you might not be communicating at all.