Second-Grade Theology

I was once asked to teach religion to a classroom full of second graders for a twelve-week period because their teacher was on maternity leave. I readily accepted and excitedly and prayerfully prepared my lessons. For the first few days, the children were kind of quiet as they sized me up. I enthusiastically showed them my love for God, and they began to relax.

During the second week, they started asking questions. I was thrilled with their curiosity and tried to answer respectfully to the best of my ability. I did fine until little Joey started asking the questions.

"Who is God?"
"He's our creator," I responded. "He made us. He is full of goodness and love."

Another hand went up. "Where does He live?"
"Well some say He lives in heaven, but God is not limited - He lives inside each of us. He's everywhere."
"How can He be everywhere at once?"
"Because He's God, and He can do all things."
"But how do we know there is a God?"
"We believe in God - we use our gift of faith. Jesus came to earth to teach us about His Father, and the love He has for each of us."

"Is He a person?"
"Is He a spirit?"
"What is He?"
"Does He eat?"
"Does He sleep?"

The questions came as fast as I could answer them. Hands were raised all over the room, and I tried to give everyone a chance to speak. Joey's hand went up again.

"Why can't we see Him?" he demanded.
"Why can't we see Him...?" I repeated the question out loud to give myself time to think.

More hands were going up all over the room. I needed help. I called on the Holy Spirit for guidance - the last thing I wanted to do was to be untrue to these children of to God.

I saw a persistent hand waving. "What is it, Hannah?"
"I know why we can't see God," she said.
"OK, Hannah, why can't we see God?"

"We can't see God because we were born with veils over our eyes. As we get older and learn more about God, out veil will become thinner and thinner. We'll learn to love God and others. The closer we get to God, the thinner our veil will become and the stronger our faith will be. But we'll never see God clearly until our veil is completely removed. On that day, we will be in heaven with Jesus."

My eyes were glazed over as I thanked Hannah (and the Holy Spirit) for this intervention. I told Hannah I believed she was absolutely right, and asked her where she had learned that.

"My mom told me," she replied matter-of-factly.

By Elaine Mitchell
Taken from "Humour for a teacher's heart"

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Well, the above passage came from a book I read recently, and though it was meant to be humourous, when one calms down to think about what this little girl, Hannah said, one cannot help but think about our own walk with the Lord.

Our eyes are veiled, and only as we draw nearer to the Lord, and know more about Him, only then can we truly understand the power of the cross. That our eyes can only see what the Lord sees if our hearts are first in sync with Him. The Lord chooses to show us at His time what He wants us to see, and that can only occur with the decision to choose that gift of faith and walk with the Lord. Closely, intimately, ardently.

Let us press forward with faith, and trust the Lord for all that He has done for us. =) Comments are duly welcome, if anybody would like to discuss this. =)