Written by Judith A. Cobb Illustrated by Wendy Cowper-Thomas Bellwood Press Evanston, Illinois
Bellwood Press, 1233 Central St., Evanston, IL 60204-0605 Copyright © 2008 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States All rights reserved. Published 2008 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper ∞ 11 10
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data [copy to come]
Design by Suni Hannan Illustrations by Wendy Cowper-Thomas
In class that morning, Griffin and his friends studied the animal kingdom. They drew lions and lizards. They cut out butterflies and birds and pasted panda parts together. They also learned that God gave people something extra that was not given to animals. It was called a soul. Griffin wanted to know a lot more, but class ended, and it was time to leave.
Because Griffin couldn’t ask his question, now he was really confused. If everyone got a soul, why couldn’t he remember getting one?
He knew for sure that if God had come to his house to bring a present, or for any reason, his mother would have cooked and cleaned for days.
There would have been a party. It would have been bigger than Naw-Rúz. Everyone would have been invited.
Griffin’s mother was downstairs. She had heard him moving around his room, opening this and closing that. She had heard the quick steps, thuds, and bangs. She had also noticed how quiet he was in the car. When his slow, heavy steps brought him to the bottom of the staircase to look for her, she was waiting there. When Griffin saw her, he wailed, “Mommm, I can’t find my soul. I’m the only kid in the whole wide world who doesn’t have one!”
“Then why can’t I see it?” he asked. “We can’t see our soul,” his mother continued, “because it’s invisible. The wind is invisible too, but when we feel it on our face, we know it’s there. It’s the same way with our soul, we can’t see it, but when we feel close to God, we know we have a soul.” “But there’s more, Griffin. Your soul is the most important thing you will EVER have. It’s even more important than your very favorite toy, because your soul is going to live on forever and ever. “Bahá’u’lláh says your soul is a ‘heavenly gem’ and that before you could walk or talk or anything, your soul was already loving God.”*
* For the full text of the passage from Bahá’u’lláh, see Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, no. 82.
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