{"id":620,"date":"2006-09-08T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-08T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/2006\/09\/gods-in-his-heaven-or-is-he.html"},"modified":"2006-09-08T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-08T12:00:00","slug":"gods-in-his-heaven-or-is-he","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/09\/gods-in-his-heaven-or-is-he.html","title":{"rendered":"God’s in His Heaven, or Is He?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Last night around 10 p.m., I was sitting at the dining room table with my portable computer before me, doing my ambitious woman blogger thing, setting up my posts for today. <\/p>\n

My 10-year-old Chattering, who’d gone to bed 30 minutes earlier, descended the stairs and walked toward me, looking most adorable in his underwear. <\/p>\n

“Mommy, I can’t sleep. I don’t know if it’s because today was the first day of school, or if it’s just hot in my room.”<\/p>\n

“Hmmmm,” said I. After hours, I get into a space where I don’t like to speak. I just want to do what I want to do, you know? But I tore myself away from Blogger.com long enough to say, “Okay!” <\/p>\n

I stood up and faced him. “Just look at me, and repeat: God is in his heaven…” I said.<\/p>\n

“God is in his heaven.” He looked quizzically at me, but he’s kind of getting used to this sort of thing. <\/p>\n

“All’s right with the world.”<\/p>\n

“All’s right with the world.”<\/p>\n

“God’s in his heaven. All’s right with the world.”<\/p>\n

“God’s in his heaven. All’s right with the world.”<\/p>\n

“Now, get into bed and close your eyes and keep saying that.”<\/p>\n

“O-kay.”<\/p>\n

“God’s in..”<\/p>\n

“God’s in his heaven.”<\/p>\n

“All’s right with the world. It should help.”<\/p>\n

My son walked away repeating this, but when he got to the bottom of the stairs he turned and asked, “Is this a trick?”<\/p>\n

“Ahhhh… hmmm. It works. It’s very calming.”<\/p>\n

“O-kay.” He put one foot on the stairs and started mounting, happily muttering “God’s in his heaven, all’s right…”<\/p>\n

It’s a line from a Robert Browning poem called “Pippa Passes.” <\/a>You may also know it as the last recited line of the book “Anne of Green Gables.”<\/a><\/p>\n

So I ask you, my readers, as we edge toward the fifth anniversary of 9\/ll: Is the verse true? Is God in his heaven? And is the world alright? Or what? Can such a line ever be true for all of us at the same time? Is there an order to the events unfolding? How divine is it?<\/p>\n

I don’t have the answers. But my son went to sleep. And I got my work done by a chiming clock we keep to toll the hours.<\/p>\n

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