He's Got The Whole World In His Hands

As I kissed Emori good-night she had one more question (she always does--usually she says I have one more science question:).

She asked, "So the earth is really like, round? like a ball?" To which I replied, "yes."

She said with disappointment in her voice, "Well, I just used to imagine that God had the earth in his hands--like there was his hands, then the dirt, then seeds and grass and everything else."

Larry and I smiled at each other, but then as we walked down the stairs we both said, you know that's a beautiful picture. If I were a better artist I would paint it for her and us.

But what a great image of God and creation.

I had always envisioned the earth sitting in strong hands--and from the looks of google images so have most people. Instead of a disconnected ball sitting in a man's hands, Emori saw the creation, our world connected to and coming from the Creator.

The pictures our minds create say a lot about how we view the world.

I'm reading "Living the Sabbath", and Wirzba's words struck me:
"Our power, in other words, is never really our own. It is a borrowed power--a gift--since it depends upon, moves within, and always partakes of God's power. Manna is but one example among the many gifts we need to be sustained every day, gifts like clean air, photosynthesis, soil regeneration, energy, communal support. When we forget these gifts, or when we fail to see them as gifts and mistake them to be ours by right or by our own effort, we falsify who we are. We overlook the fact that our lives are everywhere maintained by a bewildering abundance of kindness and sacrifice." (p. 36)

Image found at: http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs49/i/2009/149/e/e/In_Gods_Hands_by_Tourash.jpg

So where is Jesus?

Tonight we read to our girls the story (from their children's bible) of the last supper when Jesus washed his disciples' feet and had the passover meal with them. They really enjoyed talking about what was on the dusty, dirty feet of people back then...cow poop, chicken poop, etc:) As we read the part about the bread and the cup, Emori recognized that we do what Jesus did at Ekklesia on Sunday nights (take communion). Aubri was still concerned that there was blood in the cup, but Emori reassured her that is was "only something like a grape juice" and "mom and dad wouldn't let us drink blood anyway." :)

Tonight was the first night Aubri really asked me questions about Jesus (Emori has a profound theological question to stump us daily:). She wanted to know how Jesus died. I told her without going into great detail. Then I talked about how He came back to life to show us that we can have new life and a full life living the way Jesus showed us to live by loving God and others and serving others.

Then she asked the question that Emori asked a few years ago and made us think about how we as parents talk about faith with them. She said, "So where is Jesus? Is he inside my heart right now?"

She knew this expression because we gave the "easy" answer to Emori years ago about Jesus being in our hearts...and Emori, of course, took it literally. One day Aubri had been jumping around, and she said, "Mom, I feel my heart beeping really fast." To which Emori replied, "Oh, its ok, its just Jesus running around in there." :)

So how do we answer the question to our preschooler of "where Jesus is" without opting for a well intended expression that has almost become a cliche of pop Christianity? I pray we can help our children take Jesus out of the heart shape box we've put him into that fits well into our comfortable American lives. We pray we can live in such a way that our children see Jesus in the face of the hungry, thirsty, forgotten...which means they will actually have to SEE and know hungry, thirsty and forgotten people. We pray they recognize Jesus when we gather with our faith community and share the joys and sorrows of life. We pray they recognize him and follow his beautiful dust.