Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday: Dust, Steam and Invisible Stuff
>> Monday, June 4, 2012 –
faith,
God talk: talking to kids about God,
Old Testament,
psalms,
Use It on Monday
Recently Rowan asked Brad, “So, is God made out of dust and steam and invisible stuff?”
I always feel a little bit anxious when I get these
questions; I’m afraid I’m going to blurt something that will cause lifelong
spiritual confusion and angst for my kids. I find myself wishing for some warning, a day to prepare my answer, maybe put together a
Powerpoint.
After all, how in the world do you convey the amorphousness of God, his bigness, his indefinability, to a young child in a way that’s comprehensible, somewhat grounded and helpful – and doesn’t conflate God with Santa Claus.
Brad’s answer was simple. He told Rowan that God is made of
love, and that even though he's sort of invisible, he's all around us, too.
I’ve come to rely on something of a cop-out as I try to get my head and heart around God (I feel
justified, though, in the fact that the Bible supports this cop-out). Psalm 139 says this:
"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain."
God, in his very nature, is incomprehensible. There are some aspects of God that we are just not able to understand during our time on Earth. It may be that some questions will be answered when we meet God in person. It may be that some questions will never be answered.
It may be that in the end, it won’t matter.
An edited repost from the archives.
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Brad's Answer was a good one! Our Pastor even cop-ed out on more explaination of the Trinity today. Inquiring minds deserve a good answer and your Rowan will have more questions later.
Beautiful answer to satisfy the question in the child, despite the fact that wrapping our minds around all God is, truly is "too lofty for us to attain."
Sylvia @ sylvrpen.com
I love Brad's answer. I can use it to answer my own question of what God is made of. ;-)
A God who could be contained within the limits of my words wouldn't be much of a God.
love it. i feel kids are sent to us as angels in disguise. to make us think and be in awe of how great our God is.
God is made of love. Well, OF COURSE! Gotta like those simple explanations.
amen
Brad's answer is beautiful, but I think your answer is perfect, as well. I answer Caleb many times in much the same way as you. I tell Him that God is a mystery--we will never understand everything here on earth--but we have faith that He is good and love, and we trust Him with our lives.
Kids do throw some hard questions at ya -- and especially the ones that have those bigger repercussions. Sounds like Brad handled it well.
God is too big for our puny minds to wrap around -- I look at his creation and know that the Creator of this is beyond me. I stand at the ocean, the mountains, see a moose or a baby wren, and I know I can't process it all -- how, why, if, when, and what? Yes, those questions may seem important now, but really, will any of it matter then?
I'm not thinking so.
What matters is His love and mercy for someone as worthless as I.
Enjoy your vacation, sweetie.
It is interesting to me that believers hold on to this truth of some things being simply too great to understand as a source of relief and peace that we don't have to know everything to believe. Unbelievers, though, see this as a crutch and an excuse. It must be a work of the Holy Spirit, this change of perspective. I, personally, find it so freeing to know I don't have to know everything.
I think that he had a good answer, love all around us. My daughter thinks God is like us but with bigger feet. :) I'll have to see what she thinks about the love all around us answer.
We are all children when it comes to wrapping our brains around the character of God, aren't we? I love your last two paragraphs here. Thanks for this.
Wow, I just LOVE Brad's answer. Children understand love. So do we. Profound, yet simple. Thanks so much for sharing this!
and aren't we so thankful He is? God is good- I get a lot of these questions from my little scientists and often end with - boy I can't wait to find out the rest. but we aren't going entirely on faith either- everything in nature points to our Divine loving organized Creator. . . and the rest I can look forward to when my body dies ;)
His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways -- only He can make something from nothing, and something wonderful from dust! Thanks for the great post and for hosting the link-up.
God bless,
Laurie
http://savedbygracebiblestudy.blogspot.com/
Love that you toss the tough questions to your hubby. I do the same thing to mine. Perfect picture for this post, Michelle.
Wonderful ponderings from both you and your husband. If GOD could be totally explained and figured out, if all our questions were answered (in this world or the next), then perhaps, He would just be an idol made of our imaginings and not GOD at all...
*love*
And that picture. Beautiful.
I think this is easier for the little ones to grasp than us adults. They are okay with "dust, steam and invisible stuff" that's classic, your husband did a great job! Lori
He wouldn't be much of a God if we could explain Him in a PowerPoint. So love the photo!