October 2, 2007
Tucking JG in for the night was accompanied by some interesting conversation. I will roughly outline the questions without elaborating as the interest is in the questions themselves.
The question that started it all came from BG. She asked, "Are dinosaurs real?"
RG: Some in the Bible times, but they are all dead now.
BG: There aren't any alive now?
RG: No, it's like people in the Bible are all dead now. They got old and died. Like our grandparents and their grandparents.
JG: They're dead? Why are they dead? Where did they go? When people die can they still walk?
RG told him a little bit about the body, spirit, at death, spirit leaves, God is Spirit. He blew into Adam who He shaped out of mud. We can't see air or spirit, so we don't know what God looks like, but we know what Jesus looks like.
JG: So are there two men? How do people go up to heaven?
RG: God pulls them up.
JG: With His hand? How does God go up high in heaven? He will bump His head. Is he so big [gesturing with his hands]? How did God get so big? Does God have bones? Does He have a beard? How does hair grow?
RG: It's like grass.
JG: Oh, I know, it's all grass under the dirt.
RG: It's time to go to sleep JG. God doesn't sleep.
JG: He doesn't sleep? He stays awake? I'm scared to go up to heaven.
RG: You don't have to right now. God loves you, JG.
JG: Will we stay there forever?
RG: If we live for Jesus we will go to heaven and live there forever.
JG: But I'm scared.
RG: God loves you and He chases away your scaredness so when you know He loves you, you don't have to be scared because He watches over us. You will go to sleep, but He will not sleep.
[sang "Heaven is a wonderful place"]
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
One Shrewd Dude
One of the Hebrew words translated "shrewd" or "crafty" in many Bible versions is the (transliterated) word "aruwm." The serpent in the Garden of Eden was characterized with this word indicating his shrewd and crafty ways. On the other hand, King Solomon used the same word in the book of Proverbs on many occasions to indicate commendable prudence. In sending out his disciples as sheep among wolves, Jesus instructed them to be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves.
At the lunch table today, BG (6) apparently did not want the cherry tomato on her plate. So, JG (3) apparently told her quite nonchalantly to drop it on the floor and that mommy would pick it up and throw it away. Of course, "mommy" overheard this idea and recounted the tale.
In one sense, the relative harmlessness as well as the casual nature of his suggestion may be comforting as it would seem to indicate that his intentions were not shrewd in the manner of that old serpent. On the other hand, it could also be taken as demonstrating the lamentable ease with which a wrong sort of craftiness could be exhibited if not corrected.
Regardless the take, however, the reality is that the human heart must be guarded above all things. There may at times seem to be a very fine line between the crafty schemes of the enemy arising in human hearts and the even more crafty schemes of God toward good which we ought always to cultivate prayerfully, both in our own hearts and in the hearts of our children.
Let us indeed prayerfully cultivate the one and not the other so that the shrewd plans of God may come as spontaneously to us and to our children as would the shrewd plans of the enemy alight upon the soul of one yet bound by the sinful nature.
At the lunch table today, BG (6) apparently did not want the cherry tomato on her plate. So, JG (3) apparently told her quite nonchalantly to drop it on the floor and that mommy would pick it up and throw it away. Of course, "mommy" overheard this idea and recounted the tale.
In one sense, the relative harmlessness as well as the casual nature of his suggestion may be comforting as it would seem to indicate that his intentions were not shrewd in the manner of that old serpent. On the other hand, it could also be taken as demonstrating the lamentable ease with which a wrong sort of craftiness could be exhibited if not corrected.
Regardless the take, however, the reality is that the human heart must be guarded above all things. There may at times seem to be a very fine line between the crafty schemes of the enemy arising in human hearts and the even more crafty schemes of God toward good which we ought always to cultivate prayerfully, both in our own hearts and in the hearts of our children.
Let us indeed prayerfully cultivate the one and not the other so that the shrewd plans of God may come as spontaneously to us and to our children as would the shrewd plans of the enemy alight upon the soul of one yet bound by the sinful nature.
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