Jesus Questions
Riley and I were talking tonight about God. She had tons and tons of questions. We had talked about baptism and how she has the choice to get baptized in a few weeks if she is ready and wants to. We talked about what they will do (dunk her under water), what it means (showing that you are choosing not to live life for yourself and then coming out of the water showing that you are choosing to have a 'new' life in Christ) and what she thought about it. No pressure. She doesn't have to do it and can wait if she wants. She thought that going into the water sounded weird. And asked "We do this with our clothes on?" I replied with "Yes. A little weird sounding, huh!" "Oh yeah Mom. That sounds weird."
The conversation kept going with her asking "Mom, what if I stop believing in Jesus? And then I will have gone in the water to show that I believe Him, but what if I change my mind and don't believe anymore? And what if He isn't real? What if we get to heaven and he's not there? And he's actually living down here now and doesn't live up there anymore? Or if I go to heaven after I die and it turns out that Jesus isn't real after all?"
Um. Wow. Deep thoughts and great questions.
I talked with her about faith. ("Hey Mom! There's a girl named Faith in my class!") How there are many people who don't believe in Jesus. They believe in either no gods or different gods. I talked to her about how Jesus came and told us what would happen to him and performed miracles and that it is up to us to choose whether we believe that what He did and said is true and whether or not He really is the true God. This is called faith - believing in what we don't see.
We talked about how we can't see God. Can't feel Him. Can't talk to him and get a response back verbally like we do when we talk to friends. But that we can sense Him. And know peace from Him. That we have to show faith. And that if we doubt Him, we simply have to ask Him to reveal and show us Himself in ways that we can understand. To help us believe. We also talked about how it is okay to doubt what you believe. But it is important to find out what is true and to ask questions to figure out what we do believe. And then we have to trust and have faith.
She did a nervous giggle. Then asked again about what if Jesus wasn't in heaven. And asked if Jesus created a place for Satan to live. So we talked about heaven. And how God has prepared a room for us there. "In My Father's House are many rooms...." That Jesus did not create a place for Satan to live, but that Satan made a choice that created a problem for him to live in heaven because he thought he was greater than God and he could no longer be in God's presence so Satan went to rule his own place called Hell.
Riley then asked what Hell was. I told her that it was where those who don't believe in Jesus go to live. Not because they were bad, but because they didn't have faith in the one true God.
She then asked if we got to wear our clothes still when we died and went to heaven. I told her that this would sound silly, but that - No. I don't believe we wear our clothes to heaven because our bodies stay down here on earth. That our spirits go up to heaven. To which she replied "Okay. I totally don't know what you're talking about with that." :)
I did my best to keep it in simple terms as far as how our bodies are the outside and our spirit is inside of us. That God will give us new bodies in heaven. She giggled at that as well. I told her that I hope my body looks like a panda in heaven because they are cute. We both laughed. She shared that in heaven, she wants her body to be a cat! At this point, it was almost 8:30pm and while I doubt we'll look like cats or pandas, I wasn't sure that there was too much more to say and she was tired. She fought sleep for a while but was asleep before 9pm. Though not before telling me that I was a cool mom and I could tell her she was a cool kid. Sure love her!
The conversation kept going with her asking "Mom, what if I stop believing in Jesus? And then I will have gone in the water to show that I believe Him, but what if I change my mind and don't believe anymore? And what if He isn't real? What if we get to heaven and he's not there? And he's actually living down here now and doesn't live up there anymore? Or if I go to heaven after I die and it turns out that Jesus isn't real after all?"
Um. Wow. Deep thoughts and great questions.
I talked with her about faith. ("Hey Mom! There's a girl named Faith in my class!") How there are many people who don't believe in Jesus. They believe in either no gods or different gods. I talked to her about how Jesus came and told us what would happen to him and performed miracles and that it is up to us to choose whether we believe that what He did and said is true and whether or not He really is the true God. This is called faith - believing in what we don't see.
We talked about how we can't see God. Can't feel Him. Can't talk to him and get a response back verbally like we do when we talk to friends. But that we can sense Him. And know peace from Him. That we have to show faith. And that if we doubt Him, we simply have to ask Him to reveal and show us Himself in ways that we can understand. To help us believe. We also talked about how it is okay to doubt what you believe. But it is important to find out what is true and to ask questions to figure out what we do believe. And then we have to trust and have faith.
She did a nervous giggle. Then asked again about what if Jesus wasn't in heaven. And asked if Jesus created a place for Satan to live. So we talked about heaven. And how God has prepared a room for us there. "In My Father's House are many rooms...." That Jesus did not create a place for Satan to live, but that Satan made a choice that created a problem for him to live in heaven because he thought he was greater than God and he could no longer be in God's presence so Satan went to rule his own place called Hell.
Riley then asked what Hell was. I told her that it was where those who don't believe in Jesus go to live. Not because they were bad, but because they didn't have faith in the one true God.
She then asked if we got to wear our clothes still when we died and went to heaven. I told her that this would sound silly, but that - No. I don't believe we wear our clothes to heaven because our bodies stay down here on earth. That our spirits go up to heaven. To which she replied "Okay. I totally don't know what you're talking about with that." :)
I did my best to keep it in simple terms as far as how our bodies are the outside and our spirit is inside of us. That God will give us new bodies in heaven. She giggled at that as well. I told her that I hope my body looks like a panda in heaven because they are cute. We both laughed. She shared that in heaven, she wants her body to be a cat! At this point, it was almost 8:30pm and while I doubt we'll look like cats or pandas, I wasn't sure that there was too much more to say and she was tired. She fought sleep for a while but was asleep before 9pm. Though not before telling me that I was a cool mom and I could tell her she was a cool kid. Sure love her!
Comments
Post a Comment