“Daddy, what’s the colour of our school gate?” Andrei asked unexpectedly, in the middle of a casual chitchat.

“The colour of your school gate is… mhh.” I hesitated because I was thinking of a few colours. But I was mostly wondering why he asked. Recently, he’s been complaining that I don’t take him to school. Last week, I had to convince him over the phone that I had gone to work, and that’s why I couldn’t be there to take him to school. He goes to school after 8am, you see the challenge with that. 

“Inaanza na (It starts with) letter P…” he decided to give me a clue.

I told him Purple. I knew purple was one of the colours on the gate, among others that my mind was proposing.

“Purple and blue,” he said.

“Okay, but why did you ask me the question?”

“I just asked”

I reframed the question. “Did anyone tell you to ask daddy?”

“God told me”

“God? How did he tell you?”

“In my ear”

“Where’s He?”

“He’s here.” Then he came closer to me.

“How does he look?”

Sitting on my laps, he said… “He has a head like this,” as he touched my head. “He has a beard like this,” as he touched my beard. “He has eyes like this”, as he pointed at my eyes. “He sits on a chair like this.”

We laughed, he jumped off my lap, and I didn’t make much of the conversation. I have recently realised that the boy has a colourful imagination; he can mix different events and somehow tell you a story. At some point, he even said that God was under the bed. He could be….. wait, He is actually, because He is omnipresent.

As I later pondered over the ‘awkward’ scenario, I realised that Andrei was talking about God but relating Him to his earthly father. He can’t see God, but he can see me. And I am the entity in his life that represents God.

 It reminded me of the song ‘I Want To Be Just Like You’ by Philip, Craig and Dean. The chorus goes:

 Lord, I want to be just like You

‘Cause he wants to be just like me

I want to be a holy example

For his innocent eyes to see

Help me be a living Bible, Lord

That my little boy can read

I want to be just like You

‘Cause he wants to be like me

Today I took him to school after many months of not being able to. I have never seen my son so excited in the morning. Yes, the gate is purple, and only purple, with the words ‘Love. Discover. Engage’ written in blue.

Why was I thinking of other colours? I pass by the school every other day. Maybe they repainted it recently? Or maybe I just needed to be reminded of what fatherhood is really about.