Let the first grader talking begin!

So there I was, sitting on the ground on the sidelines of my 7 year old's basketball practice, reading from my Kindle, glancing up to catch attempts at making baskets, when the most dreaded child on the team (who's always fighting his own teammates for the ball) boldly trotted right up to me, leaned his squinty-eyed face forward and demanded, "Is that and ipad?!"

"Nope," I answered, "It's a Kindle Fire."

More inquisitiveness. "Well, do you read books on it?!"

"Yep."

"What book are you reading now?"

"The Bible."

"What's that?!"

"Have you ever heard of the Bible?"

"No. I went to church once. Heard the Bible. But there's nothing in it."

"Oh, but there is something in it!"

"What's it about then?"

"It's about how God loves you."

"God!? Who's God??"

"He's the One who made you."

"Me?! What?!"

The sound of a loud whistle interrupted an eternally significant conversation with a rambunctious first grader. He ran off to his coach. I watched. Looked up in the black sky where bright, twinkling lights shone in a dark world.

Oh that we'd talk about God who loves us more. Simply. Not politically-correctly. Childlike. Not theologian-like.

More talking about God's story and us in it and His love for us. Less grumbling and complaining and bickering and pointing fingers.

Oh that we would talk about God's goodness and our brokenness and His marvelous plan to save us and make us new.

Let the talking begin!

"Well, what if so-and-so's religion isn't the same as yours?" my friend the critic asks.

So-and-so and I would have a much better relationship if we talked about God and our brokenness in a candid, first-grader way rather than trying to be all suit-and-tie, amendment-quoting, society-sterilizing and elephant-ignoring about the God whom without we would not exist. And even if so-and-so thinks we would exist without God, let's talk. Let's hear some elementary style questions like, "God who?" And some child-of-God like answers such as, "The God who made and loves you."

Let the first grader God-talking begin!

Do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may be blameless and pure, innocent children of God surrounded by people who are crooked and corrupt. Among these people you shine like stars in the world because you hold on to the word of life. -Phil.2:14-16

Quieted,

Sheila