Sifting to find the truth

As I have mentioned before, we are reading through the book list from Five In a Row and then following up with a cooking project. I was very disappointed to not have time to explore this curriculum in depth this year, but this has been a great compromise.

This week we read Susan Chbowsky's book entitled, Who Owns the Sun?. The main point of the book was displayed through an innocent boy's questions to his father, a slave. He asks the same question about the flowers, stars, sun, "Who owns them?". His father's reply is that they are too big, beautiful, etc. to be owned. My five year old replied immediately, "We need to quit reading this book. It is not of the truth. God owns everything." I was hoping one of them would point that out! We kept reading until the end and found the point of the book. It was a very touching story of a loving Father explaining his bondage to slavery to his son. Here's the part that we all loved:

"A man is a beautiful thing, a very beautiful thing. But some men forget this...But only a fool believes he can really own another man, and only a fool will try. Mr. Finley may own my body, but I have a heart and a mind, and he can never own these..."

Then he went on to explain the reason for his freedom as being due to his "power". We talked about the difference between man and the rest of creation, being made in His image and what that entails, and who is in control of the universe. This beautifully illustrated book is a wonderful teaching tool. Although it is not biblical in nature, the content is age-appropriate, and there are many wonderful avenues for pointing children to their Savior.

Oh, and what did we cook? Chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, of course. Do you see the parallel? We didn't either.