The I Believe in God Necklace

I was talking to a friend tonight and told him an old story about Carter. It is such a good story I thought I would share it here so I have it written down for posterity.

One day when Carter was about three or four she was riding in her car seat in my car as we drove through the drive up teller at the bank. A nice male teller helped me and Carter watched the whole transaction from the back. This was a time in the world when kids did not have devices or TV’s in the car so she took in the world around her.

As we drove away she said to me, “That man had a big necklace on.” He did indeed have a big crucifix on and I replied, “Carter, that was a cross that means he believed in Jesus.”

Without missing a beat Carter said, “I think I would like a ‘I believe in God necklace’.” Carter interchanged Jesus and God seamlessly and I did not spend a lot of time making a distinction for her.

“OK,” I said. Thinking that going to church might be rubbing off on her.

A couple of days later Carter and I were walking through Sears to get to another store inside the mall. Halfway into Sears we came upon a big jewelry display with lots of necklaces hanging on a spinny thing with an 80% off sign. I did not normally think of Sears as a place to buy any jewelry, but I thought it might be a good place to buy Carter the Cross she had asked for.

“Carter, do you want to look at these necklaces to see if you can find a “I believe in God necklace” you want like the Man at the bank was wearing,”

This seemed like a great idea to her. She looked intently at the many mixed metal necklaces hanging on the spinny thing and considered the many crosses carefully.

She gently took one off the display and handed it to me. I looked at and looked at it again.

“Carter, this is a dolphin necklace.” I said quizzically.

“Yes, it’s my I believe in God Dolphin.”

It all made perfect sense to her. So I bought her that dolphin necklace and she wore it religiously.