Who is God, Mommy?

About once a week, we read stories from Robbie's Children's Bible. It is full of colorful pictures and shortened "story versions" of scripture. A few nights ago we were reading the story of Adam and Eve. The story focuses on how Satan, as a snake, got Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit by lying to them and getting them to question whether God really loved them.

In the story there is a classic "kid rated" illustration (similar to the one at the left) with Adam & Eve, and a snake. Robbie, very seriously, looks up after the story and says, "Who is God, Mommy?"

Wow. What a Big Question. This is one of those moments you pray about, hoping that you will have the right words to say. So I start to explain to my son about how God is our Creator, our Heavenly Father. He made Mommy & Daddy & Robbie. He makes the sun shine and the flowers grow and someday we will get to live with Him in heaven.

Robbie wrinkles his brow and says, "No, Mommy. Who is God? What does he look like?" Hmm... I tell him that you can't see God - that God is not a person like Mommy or Daddy. God is like the wind, you can feel Him, but you can't see Him. You can talk to Him, but you don't hear Him with your ears, you hear Him with your heart. I realize that I am probably doing a horrible job at explaining this. I am wracking my brain trying to find a way to answer this little guy and his Big Question.

Robbie is getting frustrated. "No, Mommy. Who. Is. God???" I ask him if he remembers how at Christmas we celebrate when baby Jesus was born and at Easter we celebrate how Jesus got to live again and went to live with God in heaven. I again circle back to the whole issue of how God is our father who lives in Heaven and looks out for us on Earth.

This is not the answer he is looking for. He picks the Bible off of my lap and points his little finger at the picture of Adam, Eve, and Snakey Satan. "Mommy," he says, "IN THIS PICTURE RIGHT HERE - Who is GOD? Which one is He?"

Oh.

I tell Robbie that God isn't in that picture. He responds, "OK!" Then he smiles, turns the page and says, "Can we read the one about the big boat, now?"

"There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men." ~John Locke