One night last week tucking my 7 and ½ year old daughter in to bed, she says, “If Jesus is a boy then God must be a girl in a pretty brown dress.” Where does one pick up from there? Faith and imagination tied together in a hilariously lovely sentence. Who I am to correct her and tell her God is not human and wouldn’t wear a dress? What right do I have to congratulate her and agree with her about viewing God as female?
We teach what we know then we try to not be so controlling about their opinions or ways of expression. We expose them to as many different spiritual ways as we can. We offer a regular connection, Sunday mass, daily grace, meditation, yoga, reading, communing with nature, whatever works for us and feeds our soul – then we let go. Trusting their soul may get fed differently than ours.
Having children is such a normal time to question our own spiritual walk. Before kids my path was firmly grounded in God and Jesus. Now after kids, I see Jesus as an example of how to live our lives, God still as the number one, but now God has more faces. He is my sleeping son, my daughter’s questioning mind, the neighbor’s challenging demeanor, the stranger’s gentle smile, my husband’s patient wisdom.
Earlier this summer tucking my five year old son in to bed, he says, “Mom, I’m done with Jesus for tonight, he is just so big.”
When our kids ask and we don’t know the answers the best thing we can do is say, “I don’t know, what do you think?” Then don’t ignore the God questions but together discover the answers that bring about love and peace, engaging in conversation. When it comes to God, it is neither good or bad, right or wrong, this way or that way. God is all, in everything. The cool part is discovering new ways to find God with our children. They have become my teachers, my shamans, my Buddha, my seers.
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