{"id":4177,"date":"2024-11-12T08:34:06","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T13:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4177"},"modified":"2024-11-12T08:35:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T13:35:03","slug":"childs-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/12\/childs-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Child’s Play"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

What happens when children talk to God? 

If the missives found in Children\u2019s Letters to God<\/em> (Workman Publishing, 1966) are any indication, what we get is a good deal more honesty that we generally hear in prayers offered by adults.

Cartoonist and playwright Stuart E. \u201cStoo\u201d Hample collaborated with Eric Marshall to assemble a collection of kids\u2019 heartfelt communications. The book made such a splash that it even inspired a 2004 off-Broadway musical. Here are a few excerpts:

Dear God: What does it mean you are a jealous God? I thought you had everything. (Jane)

Dear God: My grandpa says you were around when he was a little boy. How far back do you go? (Dennis)

Dear God: Are you really invisible or is that just a trick? (Lucy)

Dear God: Thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy. (Joyce)

Dear God: Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident? (Norma)

Dear God: Please put another holiday between Christmas and Easter. There is nothing good in there now. (Ginny)

Dear God: If you give me a genie lamp like Aladdin\u2019s I will give you anything you want except my money or my chess set. (Raphael)

Dear God: Please send Dennis Clark to a different camp this year. (Peter)

Dear God: I bet it is very hard for you to love everybody in the whole world. There are only four people in our family and I can never do it. (Nan)

Dear God: Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own room. It works with my brother. (Larry)

Dear God: Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don\u2019t you just keep the ones you got now? (Jane)

Dear God: I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that OK? (Neil)

Dear God: I think about you sometimes even when I\u2019m not praying. (Elliott)

When children communicate with God, they tend to be direct. They make their feelings clear. They haven\u2019t yet learned how to be subtle or cynical.

Or, worst of all, religious.

Followers of Jesus have to wrestle with an interesting question that arises on the pages of the New Testament:

Is God calling us to be children or grown-ups? 

Jesus famously tells his disciples that unless they become like little children, they will never enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 18:3).  But some of the Bible\u2019s authors are quick to point out that it\u2019s time to put childish habits and perspectives behind us (Ephesians 4:14).  How exactly does this work? 

The apostle Paul strikes a balance in I Corinthians 14:20: \u201cBrothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.\u201d Jesus calls us to trust our heavenly Father the way a child trusts a caring parent. But we are not to be na\u00efve about the fact that we live in a world that is committed to squeezing us into its own God-rejecting mold. 

It may sound strange, but one of the reasons we are beckoned to live with a child\u2019s sense of joy and trust is that God\u2019s own heart overflows with such qualities. 

Early in the 20th<\/sup> century, British author G.K. Chesterton made these observations in his book Orthodoxy<\/em>:

\u201cThe thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy\u2026 Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, \u2018Do it again:\u2019 and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.<\/em>

\u201cBut perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, \u2018Do it again\u2019 to the sun; and every evening, \u2018Do it again\u2019 to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.<\/em>

\u201cIt may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.\u201d<\/em>

Are you anxious that your prayers have never advanced beyond what a kid might say?

Be very happy. 

You\u2019re right where the Lord wants you.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here What happens when children talk to God?  If the missives found in Children\u2019s Letters to God (Workman Publishing, 1966) are any indication, what we get is a good deal more honesty that we generally hear in prayers offered by adults. Cartoonist and playwright Stuart E. \u201cStoo\u201d Hample collaborated with Eric Marshall… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[432,179,141],"class_list":["post-4177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-children","tag-prayer","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4180,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4177\/revisions\/4180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}