October 4, 2023
One of the most popular novels for middle-school students over the past 50 years has been Judy Blume’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”
In this coming-of-age novel, Margaret Simon, a sixth-grader, navigates her life in a new town. She has no religious affiliation because her mother is Christian and her father is Jewish. Nevertheless, she often prays to God and starts by asking, “Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret.” Add to her confusion, that she is struggling to figure out who she is on the brink of adolescence. She feels a need for religious belief and begins to explore. One grandmother takes her to services on Rosh Hashanah to interest her in Judaism. Then, her Christian grandparents visit, who have been estranged from their daughter over her interfaith marriage. An argument erupts. Margaret has an angry outburst and insists she doesn’t care about God or religion.
The confrontation with her grandparents upsets her so much that she no longer talks to God. Does that sound familiar? Most of us have been there one time or another, even those of us who aren’t adolescents.
Much of the anxiety that Margaret and her friends have centers on adolescence. On the last day of school, she returns to God and says, “I know you’re there God….Thank you, God. Thanks an awful lot.”
You may not realize it, but God is the best friend you’ll ever have. That’s why even when you’re angry with him, he waits patiently for you to return. Just like Margaret.
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