“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” ~ Jesus, John 15:15
We were on our way home from eating out together last week when my “deep thoughts” child piped up from the back seat… “What is time?” He likes to start contemplative discussions that keep us on our toes. I turned off the radio because I knew this was going to be an interesting conversation.
I look at his daddy who was busy driving while he thought about his answer. I began, “Well, Kaden… it’s kind of like a tool God uses for humans to help us not have to experience everything at the same time.”
His daddy shared, “We see things in a straight line (behind us, right now, and in front of us)…”
Kaden cut his daddy off, “and we only see a short distance.”
“It is like a law – like gravity – a tool God uses for our planet… so we can have seasons… the bible says everything has a season and a time. We see time from our limited view and God sees it from above because He put it all into place – He sees the beginning and end, that’s why they call Him the Alpha and Omega.” I replied.
I was enjoying this discussion. It gave me a chance to throw in one of our vocabulary words. We just recently learned about Alpha and Omega in our “Honor” unit study and learned the Greek alphabet.
Kaden thinks about that for a while; his ten year old brain spinning in the darkness. “But I mean deeper than that,” he finally says.
“What’s deeper than that?” His daddy answers.
“How could God exist before time?” That’s my boy! Always ten steps ahead of his parents. Sometimes I don’t even want to think about how much more mature he is at ten years old than I was at ten.
“There are some things we will never understand.” I put forth while formulating some deeper thought. I knew that wasn’t going to be a good enough answer for a critically thinking child. Especially not this particular child.
Kaden rephrased his question, “What would He see if there wasn’t time or created stuff?” Now that sounds more like a ten year old!
“Who knows, Kaden? But it is kind of like me and mommy before there was you and your sister.” His daddy shares. “Daddy and mommy were happy together, but we wanted to share our love…”
I tag-teamed, “…that’s what marriage is for – to raise up godly children and love them.”
Here was the biggie: “But why wouldn’t God create everyone to go to heaven from the beginning if He knows the end?” Kaden said as I turned to look at him from the front seat. His expression was genuinely quizzical.
“Because He doesn’t want robots.” His daddy told him. There was a brief pause while that sank in. His daddy quickly glanced back at Kaden and said, “Do your Lego Star Wars figures love you?”
“No.” He smiles. I smile, too; impressed with his dad’s clever analogy.
I thought of another example. “Just imagine yourself in the vast empty darkness of space alone… and you have the power to create anything you want. What would you make?” I looked at him, waiting to see what his answer would be.
He thought for a moment and said, “A friend.”
I could feel my heart smiling in the cold rainy night as we turned in to our neighborhood. I knew he “GOT” it. “Exactly, Kaden. That’s why God made us and gave us free will.”
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command.” ~ Jesus, John 15:12-14
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Isaiah5513 says
LOVE those moments. Also LOVE Daddies and the answers that only they can think of, especially for boys 🙂
~C
Tam says
What a beautiful exchange between you all. I love how inquisitive kiddos can be! Mine are the same way! Keeps us on our toes – I love it!
Thanks for stopping by my blog this afternoon. I’ll be replying to your comment (short novel “tee-hee” =) a little later. I really appreciated your insight!
Nice to meet you!
Laura says
Great answers! It’s loads of fun to see what kinds of questions our kids come up with, isn’t it?
Bunny Trails says
Aren’t those just the best moments? How precious! 😀
AllyJo says
It’s a precious story. Thanks for sharing.
sara d says
Just…wow. The whole conversation was great, but I think my favorite is the “Do your Legos love you?” LOL Awesome analogy. It’s amazing what parents can do (in this case: explain) as a team!
Heart of Wisdom says
I LOVE spiritual conversations like this with my children. Well, most of the time I do. This wek when my 6 yo came out of Sunday School he said “Mom we learned about self control, you eeed to too! ACCCHHH
Congratulations! You won the Weekly Blog Giveaway contest from Heart of Wisdom’s Blog.
I need your shipping address to ship “The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach.” I’ll send you a link to the ebook too.
Blessings and thank you for joining the contest. (brown nosing works–who knew)
Robin
http://heartofwisdom.com/blog
Sprittibee says
C – 🙂 Yeah, Dads are great… especially Christian dads.
Tam – I enjoyed meeting you. Hope I didn’t throw you for a loop. 🙂
Laura – Yes, they are always surprising us. We like to say that we don’t need TV around here because we have kids. 🙂
Bunnyfoofoo – 🙂
Allyjo – You are most welcome! Nice to see you smiling in my comment box.
Sarapoo – Being a team is important. 🙂
Robin – 🙂 I’m so glad I brown-nosed!!! I have really been wanting your book!!! Good to know that I’m not the only parent who’s children feel needs to learn self-control. 🙂 *sheepish grin*
Sherry says
Oooh, I love that! Kids can ask the best (& most difficult) questions. And stay-at-home moms are supposed to be dull. Hrumph. We won’t stay dull with the kids we got!
KarenW says
My dd just asked the same thing last week. I told her that it’s hard for us to understand God not having a beginning because everything else that we know about has a beginning – ourselves, animals the universe . . . We live in a finite world and comprehending our infinite God is beyond us.
Tam says
HA! No, not at all! I’m not easily looped =)