What follows will be a catalog of responses by Ukrainian children as they write to God. Of course, these are not entirely children's ideas -since adults have solicited the writings. Such children's compositions, humorous from a writer's viewpoint and perhaps revealing from a sociologist's point of view are of a kind also solicited and published in some Western countries. In the West, however, the perception of God is learned at the mother's knees from earliest childhood and from parents with some religious upbringing themselves; and where the social environment itself has usually been stable and prosperous. That's why letters of European and American teenagers reflect a mental harmony and often springs from an everyday internal necessity to speak to or pray to God.
I feel sad more than sympathetic about letters from young Ukrainians. Most of these boys and girls live in surroundings where the adults still remain atheistic due to the historical circumstance of the former Soviet Union. - Even though previous hostility to notions of God has been replaced by pragmatism, religious culture has not yet been implanted. Nevertheless, The initiators of such solicitation in Ukraine recently received more than three thousand letters from Ukrainian pupils aged from 6 to 10 years.
So, let's see what Ukrainian children write to God.
Hello, God! How are You doing? How's life? How's Your health?
Zhenya, 2nd grade
I understood that You're the chief on Earth, though You live in Heaven. Are You much more older than Earth? Won't You be reelected?
Senya, 1st grade
In different books You are described in different ways. Where can I get Your picture, even a moldy one? Do You have a mind or You are all soul?
Raya, 3rd grade
Are You happy? Do You ever laugh or cry? Did You fight with boys when you were a child or you were a guy? Do Your angels go to school? May I sometimes come to Your dreams?
Kostya, 2nd grade
How old are You? Do You feel yourself good up there? Does Your fame disturb Your life? How did You appear in the world? Did You obey Your mother when You were a child?
Artyom, 1st grade
God, maybe I can help You somehow? Do You have everything You need? Why are You afraid to show Yourself to people?
Lyuba, 3rd grade
You wrote in the Bible that in the beginning was the Word. What word?
Ruslan, 1st grade
Do You serve other worlds? What is Your education?
Tolik, 3rd grade
I've read that Jesus Christ was a Jew, but He was Your son. So, You're a Jew too?
Asya, 2nd grade
God, where is Jesus Christ now, what does He do? Does He love You as a father?
Rita, 3rd grade
Well, Jesus suffered for people's sake, and for what sake do people suffer?
Grisha, 4th grade
God, of course, I love You, but I love my mother more. Is that O.K.?
Zoya, 2nd grade
They sell candles at churches, - is that Your business?
Tolik, 2nd grade
To be honest, I don't believe in You. Just say, why people don't see You?
Yura, 2nd grade
Well, You created the first couple of people on Earth, but how was the third human being made?
Vasya, 2nd grade
Well, God, a stork brought me to my parents. But who makes us for storks?
Oleg, 3rd grade
If I understood the evolution correctly, You created Adam and Eve. And then what, a man descended from monkey?
Serhiy, 3rd grade
Is everything in the Bible true? What was the first: Adam and Eve or dinosaurs?
Yana, 4th grade
At first, men started to give birth to children - remember Adam's rib and Eve. Why didn't You like it and You loaded this hard work on women's shoulders?
Zoya, 4th grade
Do You like things that are going on Earth? When there is shooting on Earth, don't You hear that, God? What do You think, will we have a good world?
Valera, 2nd grade
There are so many disasters and so much suffering on Earth - is this for people not to feel pity to die? What did my father do bad to You, that he is so unlucky? There is such a dog's life at our home that cats can't stand living with us.
Andrey, 4th grade
If You make the end of the world, who will pray for You? Will aliens have the end of the world too?
Petya, 5th grade
If all the people go to heaven, will there be enough place for everybody there? What language do souls speak?
Andrey, 3rd grade
How's that - everything is God's will. For summer, mother's illness and war? By the way, it would be good to know beforehand, what you're planning: another Deluge or Earth will burn down in flames?
Marat, 3rd grade
I came to this world, looked around and saw that it is so cruel. Did you give people diseases for injections?
Slava, 4th grade
If I feel pain, does it mean that you are angry with me? For you to forgive my sin I have to sin first?
Stasik, 2nd grade
God, will my cat Puma live long? Do you like my grandpa? Did you give me my soul or someone else's?
Ella, 2nd grade
God, why did you create such a world that my mother cries when she tears her tights? Release my father from prison. I won't ask You about anything else even when I am dying.
Irina, 4th grade
God, why am I so unsuccessful in my studies? Maybe it's because of the teachers? Can you give me success and an inflatable boat?
Arvid, 3rd grade
God, do so that all weapons on Earth break down and all people live 10 years longer.
Kostya, 4th grade
God, send me a sack of money and I will leave you alone. Or become my father and we will buy an Audi-100.
Valentin, 4th grade
Do so that my mother and father make up, and I'll give up smoking.
Yura, 3rd grade
Tell me in secret, does anybody love me? When did love appear on Earth first? Why do people fall in love first and then cry silently?
Katya, 4th grade
How many times will I mistaken in love? There's already been three times.
Yura, 2nd grade
God, why do you forgive everybody, but teachers don't? Say, when I wasn't born yet, did you know that I was going to be?
Lena, 4th grade
Let all the people live happily and die painlessly.
Tonia, 4th grade
The saying "Truth speaks through the mouth of a little child" strikes with its verity, doesn't it?
Based on information from the newspaper "Den", 30.05.2003, 04.06.2003
Editor's Note
Proper English capitalization rules, particularly related to pronoun references to deities, have been abandoned in this article to more clearly reflect the children's emphasis. That emphasis and related bias may be part and parcel of gaps in knowledge associated with the generational problem referred to above and to misinformation in brochures and pamphlets from which some of the children's' knowledge may have been acquired.
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