It's Like: Childlike Thoughts (Part 1)
One of the main pulls that led me to start blogging again was the way that my kids always seem to have the most profound thoughts on God that drive me to consider His nature. The first part of the name of my blog really comes from the fact that my son Everett is always sharing his thoughts on our nightly devotion or the reading of a bible verse with the phrase "it's like". Our devotional conversations as a family are full of saying "it's like this" and "right, and it's also like that", "what if it was like this too?". That is an exciting picture of biblical, doxological, and theological thought. What are we talking about when we talk about God? How are we seeing Him at work in the world all around us? What surprised us this week? Semi-regularly I hope to share some of my children's thoughts from our discussions, both the strange and profound. I hope you find these "childlike thoughts" as encouraging as I do. Everett's thoughts:
In one devotional we were looking through, the book said that the ways we see God all around us are great but the revelation of Jesus was perfect. While I agree with this idea in theory or at least what the book was getting at, but I didn't want this to down play the revelation of God seen all around us every day. The way that we see Jesus in a neighbor, a friend, or a man on the street. I asked the kids what evidence for God and his radical love do we see all around us. Everett just spouted off this beautiful poetic speech.
God is the light in the darkness,
the island in the flood,
the yellow leaf in the group of red.
Everett is only 8 years old by the way. The first two lines may have come from scripture or a praise song and had obviously taken up residence in his heart and I was encouraged to hear it. The idea of God being a yellow leaf in a group of red really got my mind working. A yellow leaf is still a leaf, in the same image as the red leaves yet different. so that we are created in the image of God, somehow God has given our creative drive, a desire for community and a desire to love and be loved but we are the same time wholly other than God. Also, it made me think of how the yellow leaf took up residence among the red leaves. The incarnation of the yellow leaf. Crazy profound and beautiful!
Alivia's thoughts:
Now, Alivia answered the same question, explaining how she sees God all around her.
The sun is the candle of God.
Trees are like Jesus, when they dance.
Livy has a beautiful way with words. First, Livy seeing the sun as this gift from God holds special significance for me as her father. Alivia is more afraid of the dark than any of our other kids. She had a period of time where she would have terrifying nightmares every night and because of this, hated when the sun would go down because it meant she was going to have to go to sleep soon. She would come into our room, very early, hoping that it was time to get up. Whether she could put it into these words or not, for Livy, the rising of the sun every morning was God chasing away the nightmares and giving new hope for a new day. The sun is the candle of God.
Her second theological statement is equally powerful. I think she could have said, "when trees blow in the wind, they look like they are dancing and when the move like that it makes me think of the way Jesus was so full of love and joy he must have danced. She didn't say that. She said trees dance. That creation rises and sings and dances. Not like it is as if they dance but they dance, just like she dances when she is moved by some force inside of her. And she said Jesus dances like that. The son of God, God with us, is moved like we are moved. Sometimes even to dance.
Judah's thoughts
Our younger daughter Judah is filled with more wonder and joy than anyone I have ever met so I am excited to hear in what ways she will dream of God acting all around her. For now, the answers Judah gives are often more comical than insightful but equally enjoyable.
But God.
That was the title of one of our devotionals that talked about the frequency of that phrase in scripture, encouraging us that when things seem dark and overwhelming God shows Himself in powerful ways. I opened the book and read the title, "but God". Judah's immediate response was to squeal "EEEWWWWW!". I guess it is a lesson that language can take different shapes, depending on the hearer. "But God" means something totally different to a 4 year old.
Never stop asking questions and dreaming about what God may be up to in this world. You may get an answer that changes the way that you see things or you may just get a good laugh. Either way, I think you win.