DEAR GOD

David Heller has complied a wonderful book he titles Dear God: Children's Letters to God. Heller discovered, as did Art Linkletter decades ago, that kids say the darnest things. They really do. And in so saying they catch a glimpse of reality that we adults often miss or have forgotten. Why we miss or forget is not because we are so smart or so wise or even so dumb and so stupid. We miss it because we don't have or won't spend enough time viewing life as it should be and not as it is.

A favorite letter of mine is this one: "Dear God, Esq.: My family, the Sandersons, is pleased to invite your family, the Gods, over for bread and wine (I figured you might like this)....Please respond in writing or on a tablet. Very truly yours, Sheila Sanderson."

Little Sheila must come from a family of lawyers or else she has spent way too much of her young life reading the Old Testament, laws and tablets and all. At least she got to the part about the Last Supper and the bread and wine. Now as for the family, "the Gods," maybe she's on to something. Maybe that's how she understands the Trinity. Never thought about it that way. Did you? It does make some sense when you think about it, though. It certainly is one, good, albeit childish, way to describe the indescribable, the Trinity (the family of God?!)

We adults have a way of making God seem not dear or near or even clear, but distant, deaf and almost dead. We are afraid of a close, personal relationship. We keep God at a distance except when we almost shout at God with prayer upon request upon demand. Sometimes we almost act as if God doesn't care, and what we do or do not do does not really matter in the grand scheme of things anyway. "God? Oh, yes Him. Or is it Her? Ah, well, you know, God is, well God and well...what was that question you asked?"

But for children God is dear, near and very clear, Children believe they can and should sit on God's lap and have a face-to-face, heart-to-heart chat. God can do anything, anything: repair bikes, repair relationships, repair whatever is broken. There is complete trust because there is complete love. Children may expect a lot from God but they do not demand a lot. They know God can do anything and they simply hope that God will do some things near and dear to their hearts – even bring the family over for a loaf of bread and a glass of wine.

Martin Luther, who at times in his life was simply an old curmudgeon, in his Commentary on Galatians says this” "Faith does not require information, knowledge, and certainty, but a free surrender and a joyful bet on His unfelt, untried, and unknown goodness." A faithful surrender and a joyful bet! What a novel thought –and a very provoking one at that, is we dare go there.

Children bet on God. That is their faith. They win. We adults too often bet on ourselves; and all too often we lose. God is dear to children because to them God is good. That is all they need to know. That is all they believe. Would that we would have such faith. Then maybe our life would be what God – and we – want it to be and not what it all too often is.