Family Discipleship Through Daily Conversation

“The galaxy has always been here,” answers my son. At seven years old, certain yet curious, he confronts the idea that God made everything, except surely not this. The galaxy is too big and concrete to have ever not been there. 

“Ry, do you remember when we read about how God created the sky, the sun, the moon, and the stars?” (Genesis 1:14-18) The time we spend at night reading from his Jesus Storybook Bible comes to mind. We have read this book from cover to cover many times, cuddling in bed, surrounded by his faithful stuffed animals. He remembers looking at the pictures of the expanse covered with tiny stars, but somehow the story now chafes with the idea that creating the universe might be “too great,” even for God. 

“The heavens!” he counters, “they have always been here because heaven is where God lives.” I can see his mind working as he sifts familiar ideas with a new perception of reality. I reply, “Remember how in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1)? But although he has heard this before, the idea that the heavens and the earth were created, and not eternal, feels impossible. 

He is right, it is impossible. Our limited human minds are incapable of comprehending the unlimited. But that doesn’t mean it’s not true. My son and I got to talk about “ex nihilo,” how God created “from nothing,” while I was at the sink washing dishes and he was avoiding homework. This is where discipleship happens in my home. 

(continue reading at Rooted Ministry)