God is Everywhere!

Today was the first of many theological conversations I'm sure I will have with my son. I recently received “My First Study Bible”. It is quite a lovely book. Large font. Colorful illustrations. Fairly ecumenical in approach. A good fit for a family based in Unitarianism with influences from yoga and Buddhism.

As we were reading books this morning on the couch, I pulled it over and read the first chapter, “God Gave Us a Beautiful Home” loosely summarizing Genesis 1, 2, and 3; creation through the fall of Adam and Eve. Daniel was quite interested, asking questions and pointing out details of the illustrations. Given there were no trucks or swords, I was surprised at his interest level.

Once we had come to the end of the chapter and Eve and Adam had been evicted from the garden, I thought we were done.

Daniel asked, "Who is God?"

"God, is the creator of everything, " I replied.

“Where is God?” he asked. I realized he was looking at the illustrations. He wasn't asking something high level. He wanted to know, materially, where was God in the picture.

“Is this God?” he asked as he pointed to Adam. Indeed there was no visual representation of God. No old man with a white beard. No pillar of cloud or flame.

“No, that is Adam,” I replied.

He then pointed once to Eve and then again to the Serphent, representing Satan, asking the question again and again, trying to make sense of this.

“God is everywhere,” I replied.

"Where is God?" he asked again.

We went through the round of pointing at the various depicted characters several more times, each time my answer being, “No, that is Adam/Eve/the snake. God is everywhere.”

Finally, he started asking, “Is God in the sky?” to which my response was “Yes.”

“Is he in the birds?”

“Yes. He is in everything. He is everywhere.”

Daniel still seemed to be a bit confused, but his questioning slowed. Finally, after a long pause, he looked up at me. “Mom, can we do something fun now?”

We moved on with our day. At dinner that evening, I was telling David of our theological conversation.

“Daniel, what did you learn about God.” I prompted.

“Dad, God is everywhere!” he said with a hint of awe as his eyes widened.