My sister in law sent me this-I put it here because it seemed the right place for it.

[jhrobbins]

This is one of the kindest things I've ever experienced. I have no way of knowing who sent it, but there is a beautiful soul working in the dead letter office at the Post Office.



Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:

Dear God,

Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.

I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her. You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith.

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith , ' in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies.' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:


Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven.

Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away.

Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you.

I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.

By the way, I'm easy to find, I am wherever there is love.

Love,
God

[GodlessBiker]

1. Very touching...even for an atheist.

[aquart]

2. Snopes says it's true. 2006, San Antonio.

<http://www.snopes.com/glurge/abbey.asp>

[BrklynLiberal]

10. Good.

[Sydnie]

3. Reminds me of this movie

[supernova]

4. Dammit!!

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[NOLALady]

5. Gotta love the

USPO Employees. :loveya:

[Strong Atheist]

6. What a load...

:eyes:

[cosmik debris]

7. Really, the Post Office is playing god now.

You have to wonder what would have happened if she had gotten a book on the Islamic concepts or the Hindu beliefs about pets, or possibly a book from one of those cultures where dogs are considered food.

[Strong Atheist]

12. My take is (call me wild and crazy) that it is a VERY BAD idea to deliberately

lie to kids. "God" did not write a letter about "dog"; thus this whole letter including the "signature" is a deliberate lie...

[roguevalley]

15. how sad. you can't comfort a child. I find this wonderful. If you don't

so what? why come here and drop a dump on this? plenty of other places for you to go. This was an act of kindness. I applaud it. Good for them. This little girl feels better and that is the point. Jeez.

[unblock]

18. how sad. you can't comfort a child without lying.

yes, it was intended as an act of kindness, and likely in the short run it will work the same.
but bad things can happen when they eventually find out or figure out the truth.

personally, i've never found felt the need to lie to comfort someone. is it really that hard?

[roguevalley]

19. really? Did you believe in Santa? How about that 'lie'.

I'm glad you are here with your rock hard ethics. Must be nice.

[Strong Atheist]

22. I think that lying about "santa" is a VERY BAD idea too.

Ironic though...

[roguevalley]

27. all your life or only as an adult. putting a human face to altruism and

caring isn't harmful to me. it gives kids context since abstraction often falls like a rock with children.

[unblock]

30. what's wrong with mom & dad's human face?

i got my hanukkah gifts from mom & dad, and thanked them very much for them.
seems far better than pretending that they came from some stranger who broke into the house via the chimney.

by the way, santa claus's "human face" has more to do with coca-cola advertising from a century ago than it does with altruism. prior to that, he was mostly an abstraction.

[Dorian Gray]

42. You mean...

you never got a gift from Hanukkah Harry under the Hanukkah bush?


(I kid! Though I don't have a problem with Santa myself. I think it's good fun!)

[Why Syzygy]

46. What's that analogy...

Something about God in a skin suit? When people act with this degree of kindness, they certainly are standing in place for God. The devils among us would be satisfied with tearing the child's heart out.

edit to add: If the child had not professed a belief, it would be wrong to insert one. That wasn't the case.

[unblock]

28. never believed in anything like santa or the tooth fairy

my parents left me silver dollars under my pillow but never said anything about a tooth fairy.
and santa, well, being jewish certainly helped to avoid that one.

my father brought me up from an early age to question everything. it brought me closer to him and closer to the truth. i can't imagine a lie could have done anything other than creating an unnecessary rift between him and me.


as for my "rock hard ethics", i merely suggest you not tell people to go away just because they don't agree.

[jhrobbins]

40. I just have one question and I hope you will be honest- did you ever go to the door ,

at pesach expecting Elijah? Moses and the bush, Moses parting the Red Sea, the Golum, etc., etc. Judaism is not free from it's own 'fables'. I am a Christian, but my grandmother was Jewish, so I probably can keep up, tatelah.

[unblock]

41. nope.

yes, judaism has its share of standard fables, and more exotic mysticisms as well.

my specific upbringing was as a secular jew -- we celebrated the rituals (some of them, anyway) and participated in the culture of being jewish, but we didn't actually believe the mythological portions.

or, as some might say, we're only jewish for the jokes.

[Strong Atheist]

20. You could always tell the truth. "Be nice to people and animals

and love them while they are alive, because when they die brain activity ceases".

But, hey, I understand that when talking about religion you have to either unintentionally or deliberately lie. I just think it is a VERY BAD idea to DELIBERATELY lie to kids, and this letter from "god" is the deliberate lie variety...

[roguevalley]

25. how do you know its over when the brain activity ends? The only

way you can know that is to die. you have an opinion about this. you don't have empirical data. its all a crap shoot. you have a fifty-fifty chance of being as right as the next guy. that is all you have.

[Strong Atheist]

29. There is zero credible evidence that consciousness

continues after brain activity ceases, so I would put that at 100%.

[unblock]

32. fifty-fifty??? just because there are two ideas doesn't make them equally likely

besides, if strong atheist is right and brain activity stops at death ("IF"??? isn't that pretty much the definition of death?), then dying would most definitely NOT be a good way to "know" about this, because all knowledge would stop along with brain activity.

YOU have no way of knowing that when you die, you get reincarnated as a plum, or reappear in another universe, or become athena's sex slave, or, turn into the starship enterprise, or ....

coming up with completely unprovable and untestable ideas does not make them remotely likely to actually exist.

[jhrobbins]

17. What a shame - I don't think I would want to be your kid-I liked Santa too much

I wouldn't want my kids to grow up too quickly about the realities of this world.

[Strong Atheist]

21. "I liked Santa" "about the realities of this world"

So, you think it is a good idea to lie to kids.

I think it is a VERY BAD idea...

[roguevalley]

23. and all of this is your opinion. we get it. let us have ours or is that

not allowed? you don't have to like them.

[Strong Atheist]

24. Hey you can LIE TO YOUR KIDS all you want.

I can't stop you ...

[roguevalley]

26. who cares? I don't. I'm sure you don't care. but that's fine with me.

[Strong Atheist]

36. Cool! I am overjoyed with the religious people on this thread

(a safe assumption, based on their answers) who are publicly coming out as being in favor (in THEIR moral system :evilgrin: ) of DELIBERATELY LYING TO KIDS.

(As admitted in the OP, the letter is NOT written by "god"

here is a beautiful soul working in the dead letter office at the Post Office

and thus everything written in the letter by "god" was not written by "god" and is therefore a lie).

In MY moral system, as a strong atheist, it is a VERY BAD THING to deliberately tell KNOWN LIES to kids.

Oh, and btw ...

... bookmarking this thread for future use...

:evilgrin:

[Why Syzygy]

47. When your child's pet dies,

go with YOUR plan. Allow others their own. If it's not too much to expect.

[jhrobbins]

14. I guess we could wonder what if all day long - what if my car won't start tomorrow,

what if I get fired, what if I buy hamburger for dinner, what if the sun doesn't rise tomorrow, what if, what if , what if. The good thing is, that didn't happen in this case, so we can all relax.

[jhrobbins]

13. That's why I put it in the Religion/Theology section,

so as not to annoy anyone that was, perhaps a 'strong atheist'. I guess you must have wandered in here by accident.

[Strong Atheist]

31. Nah. Not annoyed. Didn't "wander in here by accident". Just

pointing out the religious telling DELIBERATE, KNOWN lies to kids (in a letter that was most definitely NOT from "god"; thus all the info in the letter is a lie). :shrug:


But hey, if religious people want to KNOWINGLY pass off a letter to a kid as truth when it is a KNOWN lie, I guess it is up to atheists to be the truthful group (as usual) and say that this letter was NOT written by "god"... ;-)

[cosmik debris]

35. I seem to remember something about bearing false witness

That must not be a Christian thing.

At least it must not be an important part of their religion.

[Strong Atheist]

38. !

:rofl:

:yourock:

[jhrobbins]

39. I'm pretty sure it is up to the individual's parents.

[Strong Atheist]

37. BTW, some friendly advice. If you wanted an echo-chamber of

"yes men" to tell you that deliberately lying to kids is morally acceptable in their system, you should have posted this in "groups". I am sure you could get the moral vindication for that philosophy that you seek there. ;-)

This area, however, is a free-for-all-zone, where anybody, even (*gasp*) atheists can hop in and point out that in THEIR moral system DELIBERATELY TELLING LIES TO KIDS (the letter was NOT from "god", as you admitted in your OP, and thus was a known lie) is a VERY BAD THING. :evilgrin:


Edited to add an emoticon!

[Why Syzygy]

48. No.

There are predators everywhere.

It's a mystery to many of us how allowing the hate doesn't contradict DU's stated policies regarding community :shrug:

[Deep13]

34. ...of horseshit.

Just tell her the truth. It's not that bad.

[pacalo]

8. This is a keeper!

And not one political overtone in it -- how refreshing.

[BrklynLiberal]

9. I sure hope that story is true.

[cosmik debris]

11. It is, It has been around DU for a couple of years now n/t

[roguevalley]

16. see #2. It is. :)

[BrklynLiberal]

33. Thks. I saw that after I posted.

[RebelOne]

43. Awww! That choked me up and I'm an atheist.n/t

[Soodonim]

44. It's fine for a 4 year old to believe this nonsense

but if any grownup takes comfort from the delusion that their imaginary friend has a kennel in the sky needs to start thinking more rationally.

[Strong Atheist]

45. Welcome to DU!

:toast: