Orangely Morely

I grew up in a small town on the western slope of Colorado on a small farm right outside of town. This story happened in that town after I graduated high school and was in college. And I will never be the same.

My mom and dad had a cat and, as cats are prone to do quite often, she had a litter of kittens. It was up to my nephews to name the cute puff balls and here are the names:

Orangley Morely
Orangely Leslie
Orangely Ollie
Orangely Nunly

I had never heard such names...bizarre....until I saw the kittens.

Orangely Ollie - Solid orange kitten
Orangely Morely - Mostly orange with some white kitten
Orangely Leslie - Some orange but mostly white kitten
Orangely Nunly - Solid black kitten

Through the eyes of a kid, these names made perfect sense and you could tell which was which.

Now, God says we are to be like children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. He wants us to be as unsophisticated, uncomplicated, and trusting as a child who would name a kitten Orangely Morely. When our theology has to include more than simple faith in Jesus, it paralyzes us intellectually because we can't figure it out . When we make things too hard we end up frustrated and give up because of the hopelessness of perfectionism. And when the questions don't have answers or we don't like the answers, God wants us to trust him more than we need to figure it out.

I know most of us think our religious beliefs are important and we cling to them as if our lives depended on them. But do they? Are we willing to go back to the simple yet profound "Jesus Loves Me?" Are we willing to ask more questions than have all the answers? Or better yet, depend on the simplicity of praise and worship to change our hearts and lives without all the other "stuff?" Do our "5 steps to this" and our "three steps to that" really change non believers more than if we just loved them as a child would? Would we suffer a great deal if we scuttled 90% of what we knew about God if the remaining 10% we really all we needed?

Children are simple, trusting and loving. Is that all God wants from us?