Monthly Message from the Vicar

March 2006

“Mummy, if God is everywhere, is He in this apple?”   This question was asked by one of our parish children of his mother recently who then asked me how she should answer him.  This has led me to write again (I did this few years ago) about how to go about bringing up our children with a religious sense. 

Many modern books on child psychology will say, perhaps in a more secular way, what I am about to suggest.  The whole atmosphere within the family is the major part of any kind of religious upbringing.  Where there is demonstrative affection and genuine affirmation of one another the true seeds are sown. 

How can we encourage and bring up our children in the faith?  There is still no better way than saying prayers with the children from the earliest days.  I believe that there can be no greater privilege than for a mother to give her child (or a father, for that matter) a simple blessing as the last thing before the final goodnight kiss.  Certainly there can be fewer greater joys than to impart God’s blessing.  As they grow older we can then begin to teach them some well known prayers such as the Lord’s Prayer and others.  A moment or two spent thinking back on the past day and giving thanks for the various experiences is also a way of giving them a sense of gratitude.  Also during this time perhaps recalling seeing an arthritic old lady crossing the street and asking God to help her (whoever she is) helps to develop a sense of compassion and understanding of praying for others. 

One of the frustrations that I find, particularly when preparing children for confirmation is the fact that I find so few seem to have any great familiarity with some of the most well-known Bible stories.  In fact I would regard it as almost impossible to understand the Christian faith without some of these as part of our equipment.

Many of the Old Testament myths and legends are so very valuable for our understanding of our own selves.  The story of Adam and Eve may be a somewhat simple tale, but has within it all the ingredients to understand much of our human condition.   The need for companionship, the effects of arrogance and lying and their consequences are all to be found there, as too in the story of Cain and Abel with their jealousy and murderous anger.  The stories of Jacob and of Isaac and Ishmael, of Joseph and his brothers, the whole saga of Moses and the Exodus in particular are the canvass on which everything else is painted.  Modern Christians, alas, often admit to the fact that they no longer read their Bibles.  The short gobbets readout on Sundays are hardly sufficient to get the full message – particularly when there is so much else around to distract us!

And what about those Bible stories?  There are so many wonderfully written and illustrated Bibles for children from such publishers as Lion, Usbornes and Dorling Kindersley.  Certainly my earliest memories are of these stories being read to me in the nursery – even if the Bible stories I had were straight out of the ‘Authorised Version’.   The most important thing is to make all this such a natural part of life that it does not become a self conscious addendum to ‘ordinary living’.  What about grace at meals?  Just a simple, “Thank you for the food, Lord” makes the point, although there may be occasions which call for a time of using that special, and sacred, moment of sitting down to meal for a longer thanksgiving. 

And what about those awkward questions?  The first bit of advice is to be totally honest and try to answer in a way the child might understand.  When talking about God we are always speaking about One who is Spirit and as such is always beyond the total grasp of our understanding.  We believe that he reveals himself to us in various ways.  Christians believe that this is uniquely through the Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments and that the ultimate way was through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  There are other ways as well, such as through our worship and participation in the sacramental life of the Church. Also, the love we experience through our relationships and through his creation.  Yet in spite of all this there is much that we do not fully understand.

So what about that apple – how would I answer that?  My answer would go something like this, “No God is not in the apple.  When we say that ‘God is everywhere’ what we mean is that wherever we are we can always call upon Him.  The apple is part of God’s creation and the fact that we have a lovely, shiny, sweet and juicy apple reminds us of what a wonderful world we live in, and so we can thank God for the apple and all the other good things we have.”

Tom Inman