We give them the language of faith – God, Jesus, stories in the Bible, the Church – as we would give them the paint and the paper and let them go with it.
Children are spiritual beings. We forget that because we tend to think of spirituality as something elevated and adult – that one achieves; we are an achievement oriented society, after all. I am no expert on human development, but I believe that spirituality like psychology needs to be considered developmentally. There are stages of faith, and each stage has its own authenticity and distinctiveness.
When Jesus said that one had to become like a child to enter the Kingdom of God I think he was trying to awaken in his disciples an aspect of spirituality or faith that adults often lose – that is an open ended, nonjudgmental and intuitive sense of awe and wonder.
When Jesus said that one had to become like a child to enter the Kingdom of God I think he was trying to awaken in his disciples an aspect of spirituality or faith that adults often lose – that is an open ended, nonjudgmental and intuitive sense of awe and wonder.
. . . let questions be opportunities to explore – instead of trying to come up with the answer, ask questions to further stimulate the child’s imagination. “Is God a man?” This could solicit a panic to get it right or to educate our children on the evils of patriarchy, but it could simply be an invitation to explore images of God.
Consider the imagination of preschoolers. We see their painting as a bunch of blue and green splotches with little on no construct but to him/her it is surely a dinosaur swimming in the sea. We know that the last thing we should do is to tell them otherwise. With children we need to listen to their comments and questions as we view their paintings, not as constructs that need to be answered but as expressions of their inner spiritual picture book. We give them the language of faith – God, Jesus, stories in the Bible, the Church – as we would give them the paint and the paper and let them go with it. Questions about faith and spiritual matters can cause a panic as if we have to provide them with an answer, and it has to be the right answer. Rather, let questions be opportunities to explore – instead of trying to come up with the answer, ask questions to further stimulate the child’s imagination. “Is God a man?” This could solicit a panic to get it right or to educate our children on the evils of patriarchy, but it could simply be an invitation to explore images of God. “I don’t know, what do you think?” isn’t a bad response. One of the challenging things for us is it could rouse our own explorations into how we see God, something we rarely do. When I teach confirmation to youth the first thing I ask them is about their images of God. At first they looked surprised because they were expecting something different – they were expecting me to tell them how they should see God or what they should believe about God. But once they understand what I am asking them they have no trouble talking about it because they have been imagining God all their lives. But sadly, they have rarely been asked the question.
With the youth in confirmation and with adults I say the theological task is not to come up with the answers but to articulate better questions. With children it isn't to tell them what to believe but to awaken their spiritual imaginations. It isn't as if we have to put God in them – God is already there.
Pastor Jim
With the youth in confirmation and with adults I say the theological task is not to come up with the answers but to articulate better questions. With children it isn't to tell them what to believe but to awaken their spiritual imaginations. It isn't as if we have to put God in them – God is already there.
Pastor Jim
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