A Simple Argument

The other night at bedtime, we heard our children arguing in their room.  Things got quiet for a minute and then the door open about both children padded out.  Since it was my turn to deal with them, I came up to shoo them back to bed, but they surprised me.  Instead of their usual argument about who was being too loud or some mundane thing like that, my four-year old daughter quickly announced, "He says God's not real, but I know he is, right Mommy?"  My three-year-old boy shouted, "He's not real. He's dead."  This is the same kid who has no doubt about Santa or the Easter Bunny.  

Wow.  I was stunned and tried to think quickly for the right way to handle this.  If I were a more faithful person myself, I would have answered "yes", but since I have my own struggles with doubt and am still looking for signs, an unqualified yes would have felt like a lie.  But I couldn't add doubt to my daughter's certainty.  

I tried to explain how hard it is to know for sure, that we are all searching for the answer to this question.  To answer his claims that God was dead, I explained about our belief in Jesus' resurrection and the gates of heaven.  I told him that our feelings inside will let us know about God and that some people, like his sister, have an easier time accepting God and that we should all be so fortunate.

I did my best to tailor my answer to the preschool audience and can only hope that my answer will satisfy until they are old enough to understand some of the more complicated tenants of Christianity (or another religion that they choose.) 

And I hope that they leave the big questions alone for a while.