I don’t remember God

Tonight as Braden was getting ready for bed I was watching him with such adoration my heart almost ached.  I said to him, “Braden, God gave me the best boy.”  He looked over at me with big curious blue eyes.  I could tell he was processing that statement.  And then he said, “I don’t remember God.”  Plain and simple. 

Makes perfect sense.  If you don’t understand the concept of God, then what kind of reaction could you have other than “hmmm… how could this guy give me to my mom if I don’t remember him?”  And then I realized that I have entered a new stage of parenting – one where I need think before I speak because what I say will be intellectually challenged.  I mean — I had to answer to that! 

How do you explain God to a three-year-old?  I’m embarrassed to say that I was kind of leaving that one in the hands of the kids program leaders at church! (Nevermind the fact that we’ve been to church once in the past year.)

And so I told him to finish getting ready for bed and we would talk about God before we started his bedtime stories.  This bought me approximately three minutes to prepare my response. 

“God is the creator of the universe.  That means he made the Earth [this is one of Braden's favorite words/concepts right now - Earth].  And he made the stars and the moon and the sun and he made all the people.  He made me and he made you.  And he loves us soooo much.”  Phew.  Let’s read Curious George. 

But NO! 

“Well then where is he?” he asks. 

“God is in heaven, up in the sky, and he is everywhere all around us, too.  Only he is invisible so we can’t see him.” 

“Well, how did Jesus get down here?”

WHAT!?!!????  Wow, if I knew I was going to be quizzed on my Christianty, I’d have read the bible last night.  No – wait – I’d have said a prayer!  Or begged for a miracle…

“Jesus was born as a little baby to his mommy, Mary, just like you and me.  Only God is his dad.  He was a little baby and he grew up to be a man.  And he was the best man that ever was and he loved everybody.  He made sick people get better and he was nice to everyone.” 

“No, but how did he get down here if he is dead?”

You’ve got to be kidding me.  Okay, God, I get it.  I need to bring the kid to church.  Now, can you let me off the hook here?  “Jesus wasn’t dead when he was down here.  He was just a regular person like you and me and when he died he went to Heaven.”  I figured reincarnation was a little over his head. 

“Why did he die?”

Explain crucifiction to a three-year-old.  They should have taught us this in lamaze class.  I’ll take a short-cut here.  ”Jesus died for our sins.  A sin is when you do something you shouldn’t do.  Like if you don’t listen to me, or if a kid in school hits you, or I say a bad word – those are sins.”

“And then you die?”

Uh oh.  What did I do??  “No, you don’t die if you sin.  Jesus died so that God would love us even though we sin.  You’ll understand better when you’re older.”

“But, but, then he went in the sky by his dad?  God?”

“Yes, then he went to heaven.  Like Old Grandpa.  And now Jesus is with God in heaven.  And they love us very much.  And when we want to talk to them, we can pray.  Do you remember praying?”

“Um, I don’t know.”

“Okay, let’s practice.”  So I explain how to start a prayer, and that you want to say thank you for all the good things in your life and that you can list them if you want, and that you can ask God and Jesus to take care of the people that you love or to help make sick people better and you can ask for help if you need it.  And then I told him how to end the prayer.  “In Jesus’s name, Amen.” 

“I can’t say that word.  Can we read my stories now?”

I thought you’d never ask.

Tagged as: Braden, church, God, Parenting, Single Mom