Why do we have a Belly Button ??

For some reason I've been thinking alot about belly buttons lately ... perhaps it's because I've been doing some introspection, and we off handedly call such things - navel gazing ... but for whatever reason, I've been wondering about why we even have a belly button ...

The scientific explanation is that it is where the umbillical cord that connected us to our mothers once was, and now is a scar of sorts to remind us of our humble human origins. But I wonder if there is more to the belly button then that ...

One of my favourite books to use in ministry with Children is "Does God Have a Big Toe?" It is a series of stories written in the Midrash tradition to offer further details and explanations about the stories we read in the Bible. They are stories about the stories ...

The title story - "Does God have a Big Toe?" is the story of a little girl who asks her mother one day - "Does God have a Big Toe?" and the ensuing controvesy sees a huge tower built in a place called Babel, so the King can climb to the top and look ... God wants none of this silliness, so he makes it near impossible for the tower to be completed ... As the family leaves Babel for new opportunities the little girl asks her mother, "Does God have a Belly Button??"

It's a good question ... recently in a conversation with a friend, the topic turned to the existence of God ... and belly buttons came up.

She said that she was raised by agnostic parents who never explored the idea of God ... but then she mentioned that her wise and wonderful daughter had an explanation for our belly buttons and how they connect us to God. (I hope I do justice to the words of this wise and wonderful young woman ... afterall, I'm getting them third hand ...)

Annie said that God is our connection through our belly buttons ... through our belly buttons we are all connected to one another in a grand cosmic way ...

I heard that and said - "Hmmm, sounds reasonable to me ... smart young woman!"

Belly buttons are funny little things ... they connect us to our past ... and maybe Annie is right - perhaps they connect us to each other too ...