amazing grace

The house full of neighbour's children.
They are blathering with each other about something.
I am chatting with the hamster.
Dimly I become aware of the kids' conversation.
Here's larks, thinks I.
They are talking with keen eagerness and not a little fascination, about the end of the world.
"The world could end with an asteroid coming from space and blasting everything into nothingness," enthuses Peter aged 15.
"Some people say the world will end when the polar ice caps melt because of global warming," puts in Katie aged 14.
Grace aged 4, tugs her mother's sleeve.
"The world will end when God goes away," whispers Grace.
Her mother shoots a dangerous look at me but I am now in a deep conversation about Kant with the hamster and she cannot catch my eye.
"Who told you that Grace?" asks her mother.
"God told me," answers Grace.
"When did God tell you that?" presses her mother, still suspecting that this is the work of a lesser god.
"When I was born," says Grace.
Her mother stares with the aspect and gait of a woman who has seen the lifting of the veil and is momentarily dumbfounded.
"Let me know if God tells you anything else," she manages at last.