Bedtime Stories

On Sunday night (after the Crossfire Retreat), I babysat for a family in the church. As I was tucking their 6 year old boy into bed, he asked if I'd tell him a story. 

I began, "This story is a true story; something that really happened."

He could read my mind, "Is it a Bible story?"

"Wait..how did you know?" 

He grinned at me and said, "Because all Bible stories are true!"

This made me smile, the refreshing, solid faith of a little child.

He then asked me, "Who is God?"
Wow..my cookie cutter Sunday School answers wouldn't cut it on this one. How do you sum up who God is to a 6 year old?

"Well," I tried to recall scriptures about God, "God is love and God is perfect and God is Creator. God is three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit."

He proceed to ask me question after question about the different persons of God and why Jesus had to die. He had a rich Bible understanding, at only the age of six, and could retell the key Bible stories in detail in the larger gospel story. Thankfully, God gave me the wisdom to respond to his questions, but I have to share that this experience was so powerful:

1) because I was touched by the honest and deep questions of this little boy and how much he wanted to know about God and was eager to know Him more.

My favorite line of his was after I talked about God the Son, Jesus. He said, "I wish I could see Jesus. When can I see him?" He was excited to meet Jesus, in fact yearning for the day when he would see him face to face. Now I see what Jesus meant when he advised us to have faith like little children and maybe even their excitement about Heaven too!

2) because this is my prayer for my students (Crossfire and at CCA); that they would know the Bible is the source of truth and authority on everything and that it is God's love letter to them, an unfolding story (now extending into their lives) of how God pursues us, no matter how much we turn away, and a story of redemption and undeserved grace.

3) because when you communicate Biblical truth to kids, you have to simplify things in a way that they understand and this stretches your own faith. Telling about God's work (through the Bible) is one of my favorite things to do, and I was so blessed to share this sweet twenty minutes time at this boy's bedside talking about Jesus.

Let's never forget to invest in our children and teach them in the Scriptures:

Mark 10:13-16

People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.  When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."  And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.