Hard Questions From an 11-Year Old

I just finished with our nightly Bible and prayer time with our kids: Jonathan, who is 14, and Lisa, who is 11 years old. Lisa was knitting while we talked; it's her new hobby, one of those things a Dad like me doesn't have much direct experience with. She was inquisitive tonight (this conversation really happened).

"Dad, where did Jesus come from? Not when he was born on earth, but before that?"

I answered with a question of my own: "Well, where did God come from--since, after all, Jesus is God?"

She had to wrestle with that one. (Jonathan stayed quiet through all this.) I told her that God didn't actually come from anywhere at all, that he has always existed. That was hard for her to grasp. I explained that just as time can last for eternity going into the future, God existed from eternity going back in time (not 100% technically correct, but she's 11 years old, after all).

She had trouble formulating her next question, stumbling around her thoughts for a while; but when it came out, it was something like, "What if God was just suddenly there just before the world?"

"Do you mean, could he have just popped into existence?" I asked. She said yes. I answered, "No, that's not possible, because he would have had to pop into existence out of nothing, and 'nothing' isn't powerful enough to make God. Even a 'something' wouldn't be powerful enough. God has always been."

I guess she was enjoying this kind of discussion, because she moved on to another question as she kept on knitting. "Are we going to live through the Tribulation, Dad?"

I said, "I don't know. There have been lots of Christians who have gone through times that have been as horrible for them as what any person would experience in the Tribulation."

"But Dad, I mean, you know, the Great Tribulation."

I told her I thought it might be possible that Christians would live through it. She said, "But I heard that Christians are going to be taken up to heaven, and come back to earth after the Tribulation. And people can accept Christ during the Tribulation."

"Well," I answered, "a lot of people do believe that, including a lot of people in our church. It's not something you have to believe one way or another to be a Christian, since the Bible isn't entirely clear about it. I think that Christians will live into the Tribulation, but some people disagree."

Then she looked down at her knitting needles and yarn, and back up at me again. "Dad, why does this keep twisting?"

I said, "Now you're asking a hard question!"

Posted: Mon - August 28, 2006 at 09:39 PM |

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson getCategoryName("<$CategoryUUID$>");

Hard Questions From an 11-Year Old

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson