This last Sunday, I encountered a couple of tough and embarrasing questions. Not that I didn’t know the answers to them, but was just caught off guard by them and didn’t want to answer. The questions were from children in our sunday school classes. The first question came in the middle of my telling the story of David and Bathsheba. “She was naked? Eeewwwh”, said one of them. I didn’t answer. It was too awkward. I just continued with my edited PG story. What does a sunday school teacher or parent do with adult content in the bible? The second question also caught me off guard. It came after class was over. “Who are you going to vote for?” I give him a funny, confused look. This isn’t the kind of question normal seven year olds ask. I danced around it, and didn’t say because I’m not sure myself who I’m voting for. Then there was the sunday before. Another teacher came up to me for help. One of her middle school students asked that “if we are heirs with Jesus, did that mean God had to die?” I couldn’t help her with that either. I should just start deferring all questions to either parents or elders. Children are simply amazing. It’s been a joy teaching and learning from them.
September 23, 2008
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My first reaction is to tell the children that the Bible doesn’t tell us if she was naked, but we know that David was not supposed to be there. He was supposed to be with his soldiers.
On the second question, normally an heir takes possession of goods and other assets from someone who has died, but that is not necessarily so. In the story of the prodigal sons one of them had his inheritance while his father was alive. Our inheritance will be ours while our father is living because he is eternal.
I’m not sure I could have come up with these answers on the spur of the moment.
Comment by Gus — September 23, 2008 @ 5:30 pm |
Let me take a wild stab at who asked one of those questions. *wink* Though, we have been directing the boys to show respect by -waiting- until an adult brings up political issues and not ambushing them with The Big Question.
Kids do ask interesting questions. . . I’ve found that often the best answer is “I don’t know. . . but we can look for the answer.”
Other times, I find the less-is-more approach is better.
Comment by TulipGirl — September 26, 2008 @ 5:53 am |
“if we are heirs with Jesus, did that mean God had to die?”
I assume you believe in the trinity? Maybe that’s why it didn’t make sense.
Comment by controlledmess — September 26, 2008 @ 9:55 pm |
Hi controlledmess,
Welcome to my blog. I do believe in the trinity. The reason for the question, though, was precisely because we believe in the eternal trinity. Which was what spurred on the question, why would the bible use the language of “heir” since that usually connotes the death of the parents first before one receives the inheritance. Gus, the first commentor, makes a good point about the prodigal son. I would also commend Galatians 3 as a place to better understand what it means to be an heir. Of course, I didn’t think about any of this when it was posed to me.
Comment by Tom — September 26, 2008 @ 10:47 pm |