Canutito learns ‘a tenner fe’
Canutito had come back pa’la casa un poco confused. He had just been en el catecismo dónde la catechism teacher had asked the class un pregunta que era rather strange. She had asked the students si podían hacer identify lo qué era “faith,” and Canutito had been thinking about it desde el momento that he had left de la iglesia. He got home todo cansão, plopped down un una silleta de la cocina and started pensando about what the respuesta could possibly be. Just then, Grampo Caralampio came into the kitchen después de tomar su afternoon nap. He found a Canutito still deep in thought allí.
“¿Qué te pasa, m’hijo?” he asked Canutito as he passed por detrás de la silleta and he tussled the boy’s hair.
“Oh, hi grampo,” Canutito said, smoothing unas mechitas de cabello back down. “I was just trying to see if I could hacer figure out lo qué es ‘faith’; ésta es la homework que la catechism teacher gave to us esta semana.”
“Oh, m’hijo,” grampo prefaced, “ésa es la cosa más fácil to answer. ‘Faith’ is having absolute confidence and trust en algo, without haciéndolo doubt ni un poquito y a veces, hasta sin tener proof. It is like knowing que los árboles están swaying porque hay wind, even though you can’t see el viento.” “I wish que I could believe en algo even though I can’t see it, grampo,” Canutito said, un poco triste. “You believe que hay ‘germs’ in the world, don’t you, m’hijo?” grampo asked him. “Los microbios son invisibles pero those very germs cover todo en el mundo.”
“Sí, grampo,” Canutito replied. “We learned about los germs en la escuela. Los germs are easy to believe in, grampo, pero I am talking about cosas grandes como ‘God’.” he replied.
“No hay anything tan grande como ‘Dios’, m’hijo,” said grampo quietly. “Pero, let me tell you about how mi papá taught me about la fe de Dios.”
Canutito perked up de una vez porque he loved to hear grampo tell him sus historias de más antes.
“Have you ever noticed, m’hijo,” grampo asked him, “just how brave and strong I am?” He flexed los muslos de su brazo just to stress his point. “Let me tell you though, que en un tiempo yo era un real scaredy cat — even afraid de mi propia sombra.”
“How did you learn not to tenerle miedo a your own shadow, grampo?” he asked.
“Well m’hijo, mi papá told me que Dios would always be around to protect me, y luego, to make his point, he took me pa’la floresta and he sat me down en un tree stump. As I sat there en el troncón, my dad took una blindfold and tied it over mis ojos. He told me que Dios would protegerme toda la noche if I had fe absoluta de Él. I realized que I would have to sit en ese stump all night long without even haciendo peek por under la venda.”
“And where you able to do it, grampo?” Canutito asked him todo curious.
“At first era un poco hard, m’hijo,” grampo replied. En la first hour of blindness I could hear a un coyote howling nearby. En la segunda hora, había un tecolote hooting just above me and en el medio de la noche, I heard aun bear cracking unos branches very close to me. Pero I remembered que Dios would protect me so — even though que I was scared— I didn’t peek por el blindfold.
En la mañana, when the sun came out, I felt the warmth y entonces I removed la garra de mis ojos and I found my dad sitting next to me. He had never left me en toda la noche and I found out que it had been him who had made todos los sounds de los animales en la noche pero que he had also protected me all night long. That’s how I learned lo que era real faith, m’hijo.”
Canutito hugged his grampo porque ahora he had an answer para la mestra.