I don't know their scientific name, and haven't done the research, but thousands have come to visit us lately. Cade (age 7) is fascinated by them. He watched them for an hour. He asked a lot of questions, as he does with most other things. Between this evening, the experience of owning a male dog, Psalm 139, and the Christmas Story, Cade has pretty accurately figured out where babies come from. I guess we won't need formalized "talks".
Bible + Nature + his questions = we're talking
It looks like we won't be taking future weekend retreats to cover these matters with the kids, but we will be retreating from my friend's children for a couple of days. Hopefully, that will give our son plenty of time to be less fascinated by his new-found discovery and he won't see the need to share this information with peers.
In other news: Kinley returned home today from a slumber-party at 8-yr old "Amy's" house. Amy and Kinley have been in public school together for 3 years. On Valentine's Day, Amy wrote Kinley a note: "you are the nicest, kindest person I know." (that does a momma's heart good)
Let me tell you about Amy. She's a genius. She is well-versed in science, history, greek mythology, and anything else she's ever read. She's a leader. At 8 years old, she has quite a mind and mouth and a huge personality. She's wildly crazy, and a wee bit rough around the edges. My husband and I love her.
Amy believes in the Big Bang Theory and something about an acorn at the beginning of the world, and something about stars colliding. (If you are familiar with the "acorn theory" please educate me.) Amy mentioned it to Kinley and her closest friends last night. Kinley said "no, no. You need to read Genesis 1:1. Can you go get a Bible?" Kinley showed her friends where Genesis was, how to read the Bible, and explained Creation in a way that thoroughly impressed me. Her friend did not know where the acorn came from, or who formed the stars in the first place. The other friends stood silent, shaking their heads in affirmation of Kinley's 8 year old defense of God.
After a long discussion, Kinley let it go when Amy said "you know, you're really starting to annoy me with all this Christ stuff." High-five Kinley. They're still friends, and they still love each other. So much so, Kinley is planning on calling Amy tomorrow. She wants to share Jeremiah 13, the "linen underwear" story because "I can really see Christ in that story and Amy likes potty-talk and underwear and talks about f-a-r-t-i-n-g." I am thrilled to know that my sweet, gracious child who spells out questionable words, is about to take an Old Testament Story about dirty underwear and share the Gospel with her friend. Pray for her. We've got three weeks left in this town, and her flame is not flaming out.
I sleep satisfied tonight. I rest my hope not in any parental knowledge or ability. My hope is not in my children. Our entire family has too many failure stories for that. But how wonderful, that God's Word is authoritative and sound. His Seed is good and is bearing fruit. His Spirit is alive and active in the hearts of children. His creation is a great teaching-tool for the awkward topics I never thought I'd be having this soon. My hope is in a Jesus who can even be found in a "crude" Old Testament illustration.
Though I love most of God's created beings, I take all suggestions on how to get rid of these love-bugs. We have had our lesson...it's time for them to go.
Good post Tonya, and yay for Kinley! Allow me to hopefully shed a little light on the "acorn". The idea of the Big Bang is that all matter in the universe started out clumped together in an immensely dense singularity, or single point. Then, at some point in time, it exploded out into space. The matter, bits of matter, having exploded from the single point, then started colliding with other bits of matter, ultimately forming stars, nebulae, and planets. That's basically it in a nutshell...which leads me to the acorn. From what I've gathered, I think the acorn theory is an analogy. An acorn is quite small, but when planted in the right soil, watered, and given time, it will "explode" into an oak tree, which is a very big tree. I THINK this is what Amy was talking about. I could be wrong on that, but that is what I would surmise. Ask Kinley if that sounds like what her friend was talking about. I must definitely commend Kinley too, for getting the kids to think about where that first bit of matter came from.
ReplyDeleteI've tried to say something similar in comments before in another blog, trying to say that the matter had to come from somewhere, it couldn't have come from nowhere. The trouble you run into with some people though is that they will then say, well, if God created the matter, then what created God, because how could he have come from nothing? I think it's an innate stubbornness in people that causes them to think that way. I can tell you this though, even if Kinley didn't reach her friends with that, it started them thinking.
Thanks for taking so much time to write this Joe! yes, that's very similar to what her friend means.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting, even my son at 7 says it's just hard to believe that God has always existed. His logical mind likes to have a place to start.
I have been challenged by this whole ordeal. Reading Genesis 1 has brought up even more questions to me and made me see things in a whole new light. this is thought-provoking stuff!