Love & Blunder

These things. These theological questions that Olivia comes up with. I’ll tell you, if this isn’t the most humbling task, the instruction of Little Ones concerning God’s Truth, then I don’t know what else is.

While driving home from a LONG outing to try and find a fabric store that carries Anna Marie Horner’s “chocolate lollipops” fabric Olivia asked me, “Where is God, I want to be with Him but I can’t see Him.”

Criminey! So I said, “well God lives in Heaven, which is in the sky behind the clouds and the stars and the sun.” It feels good to talk to her about something that I love so much, but I’m worried about being confusing, worried about giving too much information, or too little. The best advice I’ve been given is to let their questions guide you. Well, Olivia is a girl of many questions, so these conversations go on for a long time.

“How can we fly up into the sky so that we can get behind the sun and see God?” she asks.

“Well, we can’t. But God comes down to us, too. So we can see Him down here. When we read our Bible, that is God’s Words talking to us. And when a little baby is Baptized God puts himself in the water and pours himself all over the baby, so we can see Him there. And when we take Communion at Church we are eating Jesus’ Body and Blood, so we can see Him there.” I said, hoping that she wasn’t confused.

“That means that there are two Jesuses.”

“No, there’s only one Jesus. It’s just like there is only one Olivia even when you get a cut and your blood comes out.” At this point I was pretty sure that I was being confusing. Now I’m talking about biology and theology. Yikes. Where are all the smart people? How in the world am I going to help Liv know God in truth?

But that seemed to be enough for a while. Until later that night we were reading a book about St. Patrick. I asked who God’s Son was and she said, “Jesus.” So I reminded her that Jesus is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Then I said that the Holy Spirit is inside her. “I don’t want Him in there. Can you take Him out?” she complains, pulling at her shirt.
Great. This is the spiritual instruction that I have to give her now when Rob and I are her only influence. What kind of questions is she going to come up with when other people are telling her things? Will I ever be ready for this?

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people & post a comment here once you post it to your blog, so I can come see.

“And He looks me right in the face, as though he wants me to know he knows it is a performance and he’s amused by it. I suppose an attempt is a performance, in some sense. But what else can I do?”

It’s from <i>Gilead</i>, which Rob checked out form the Library. I’ve had no intentions of reading it, but not that I’ve gotten these three sentences out of the way, why not continue?

If you read this, and you want to do it, you’re tagged. If you don’t have a blog and you want to do it, leave it in the comments.

I’m sorry that my contribution to this blog has reduced to passing on the funny things my kids do and say. I’m not intentionally trying to be boring, it’s just winter and I have nothing really profound to say.

Now that I’ve apologized, here’s a peak into our family prayer life:

Dad: Ok Liv, what would you like to pray about tonight?

Liv: Elephants.

Dad: Good idea, we can thank God for creating them. Can you pray for Pastor Kozak, too?

Liv: Lord God, Thank you for Elephants. Will you help them to be healthy and strong? Amen.  Lord God, Please be with Pastor Kozak so that he can grow up until his head touches the ceiling at church. Amen.