In our home, we have four kids. One of our family rhythms before bed every Sunday is to go around and each say an attribute of God. We start the phrase “Our God is the God of…” and everyone finishes the sentence. This has not only been fruitful in our own processing of God’s greatness, but in the hearing of our children sharing what they know to be true about our Lord.
Here are a few examples from the mouths of our sweet babes:
Joy
Kindness
Creation
Family
Birds
Laughter
One night, our four-year-old son Walter said, “God is like Daddy”. Yes, buddy, yes! And also no. Yes, Dad is made in God’s image, just like you. And yes, he strives daily to look more like Jesus. But even Dad’s love doesn’t come close to the love of our heavenly Father. What a gift. My little boy is growing up seeing a tangible expression of God’s love. Flawed. Human. But tangible. Sadly, many reading this cannot relate to Walter in this.
I deeply grieve that with you, AND ALSO…
This is a gift available to each of us. A gift not only for children, but for ourselves. The gift of the church. The gift of fellowship with other believers. The gift of communal care. We see it through unity (Hebrews 10:42). We see it through friends reading the Bible together in coffee shops (Colossians 3:16). We see it in families saying yes to foster care and adoption (James 1:27). We see it through meal trains and car rides (Romans 12:13). We see it through prayer (James 5:16). We see it through the steady, quiet work of daily simplicity (1 Thessalonians 4:11). Through a mom’s tender teaching (2 Timothy 1:5).
We are gifted with these flawed, human and beautifully tangible expressions of God’s love. We are gifted with the opportunity to also live lives of these expressions. We are gifted the church.
Contact Bekah
