Questions?
One night last week, we had a little theology lesson at bed time in my house. As I was putting her to bed, Bel asked, “Did God die?” I answered that no, God has not died but Jesus died. So she asked, “Who is God?” For that one, I gave a possible frustrating answer – God is God and God doesn’t die. Next up, “Who is Jesus?” So, Jesus was a man who was alive like you and me, but he was also part of God. And yes, he died, but then he came back to life. And here’s where the many hours in church kicked in. “On Easter! He came to life on Easter last year and he’ll do it again this year on Easter, but not on the days in between.” Well, sort of. But I just left it there.
I know some people are afraid of kids’ questions, especially about religion and faith. Now I have a masters degree in Christian education, so it would be pretty bad if I was afraid of those questions, right? But I have to admit, sometimes I am a little. We don’t want to say the wrong thing and turn our kids off of God forever. We don’t want to give a “wrong” answer. Is this why people don’t sign up to teach Sunday school? Well, I’ll tell you, it’s OK to tell children that you just don’t know.
Last week in our 9:45 children’s Sunday school class, some of the teenagers who had been to Haiti came to tell the children about their experience in Haiti. When introducing these young ladies, I told a story about the best question I’ve ever been asked by a child. Ava Sparico, who is now in 10th grade, asked this question when she was in Kindergarten. She didn’t remember it, but I still do. I had read the Christmas story from the Bible to our Afterschool group. And Ava asked, “When Jesus was little, did he know that he was, like, Jesus?” I love that question. I have no idea what the answer is. I told Ava then that I didn’t know but that it was a great question and she should keep asking questions. That is how we grow in our faith. If we just blindly accept everything people tell us about God and Jesus and the Bible, then it isn’t our faith. We need to think about things and consider them. Like little Ava, we need to think behind the story sometimes. She accepted that Jesus was born as a human and was more than a human, but she used her child-like wonder to go deeper into that story. Sometimes, that’s what we need to really understand and absorb a story.
Adults who answer children’s questions with pat answers don’t always help. Admitting that you don’t know the answer is sometimes better. And it’s OK. If you want to send them to me or to Charles or Shawn, that’s OK too. We might say we don’t know, but we will encourage them to keep asking questions. And that is a skill they need if they are going to grow in their faith.