I was reading a short essay by a friend that is from a collection of stories about New York.
Dorothy Spears in "God Must Be an Octopus," is writing about her children and their lives in the aftermath of 9-11. They saw and heard the collapse of the towers.
She writes:
"I started to tell the teacher how yesterday Ferran and Alex had stood by the West Side Highway waving American flags and thank you signs and shaking the hands of firemen. One child had asked about a certain fireman, and when his mother said, “God took him to Heaven,” the child’s brother sighed, “God must be an octopus.”"
It is as good of an explanation of his "powers" as I've heard.