What
Children Think
“The
problem is, many people in need of saving are in churches, and at
least part of what they need saving from is the idea that God sees
the world the same way they do.”
Barbara
Brown Taylor (An Altar in the World)
I'm
working with children's Sunday School right now; four little kids
between the ages of 5 and 7 . I figure they know more about God than
I do, so I ask a lot of questions, which they answer with great
patience. The thing is, as we go along in life and study the Bible,
or whatever the book of scripture our particular culture espouses, we
begin to think we know the mind of God. And then we begin to ad
lib—we put things into the mind of God that can't be found in any
scripture anywhere. We believe, for instance, that God is a
Christian, or a Muslim, or a Jew. That God is on our side, whichever
side that may be. And, whatever else God may be, clearly, he's a man.
Little
kids haven't begun to “study” so they just go with their gut and
assume that God is good. That in any given situation, God would do
the right thing, the kind thing. God would have no part in brutality
or barbarism; God would not harm, either justifiably or not. They
actually think that God loves all of creation equally—from the
anteater to the great gray whale, and from little children in Africa
to ones in China and France. I like the way children think. We could
learn a lot from them.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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