This line in Here You Are, every time I read it to five-year-olds in Kindergarten or in First Grade, makes everyone sit up straight. Eyebrows go up, mouths open, accompanied by wriggling and looking around the classroom. It seems to be the main thing to wonder about at that age, while out in the big wide world for the first time on a regular basis. It is quite something to have to figure out who is on your side and who is trying to hurt you when you are five years old, and suddenly find yourself among dozens, if not hundreds of strangers every day at school.
Here You Are's magic does not come from clever advice on the subject of friends and enemies or any other questions raised, but from confirming this "wondering" about things, that we all do. Readers who do not wonder about anything, or who, if they do, want others to give them answers, find Here You Are boring, if not "offensive". Those who wonder and try to see with their own eyes and decide with their own hearts, on the other hand, are often so deeply touched that they start crying and putting their hands on their hearts.
Some Christians wrongly assume this book is based on Hinduism or Buddhism when it clearly is about "the kingdom within" we all share and that all religions talk about. Nobody is closer to it than children, no matter their religion. People forget this major teaching of Jesus. And he did not mean only Christian children. This kingdom within is the answer to all questions arising in the material world of opposites. Here You Are shows the way - which has been called the long journey from here to here. That's what's so much fun about it. Here we are, and nowhere else for all of eternity, no matter whether "here" looks like heaven or looks like hell or like nothing at all. "Here" is the truth that sets us free. A person who can remain "here" fully, without wanting to be anywhere else, even in the middle of being crucified, like Jesus, is home, free, and "at-one" with God. God is here, eternal, infinite, perfect. And it is so simple, and so obvious, that you have to chuckle.
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