We've been doing sunday school lessons with him.
Today we looked at Genesis three.
The synopsis. God made a nice place for adam and eve to live. Everything was nice to each other. in the middle of the garden God put a tree and said to Adam and Eve...DON'T eat the fruit or you will die. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and had to leave the nice garden and they eventually died.
After we drew pictures and talked about it (amidst a 1000 why questions) Justin's response was...
J- No mommy...shut the bible... it's wrong.
me - Wrong? What do you mean Justin?
J- Why they die? They don't die. That not real. Shut that bible. I don't like that story it's wrong.
me - but Justin they did die because they couldn't be with God.
J- No...see walking away...No being fake. (that's dying to Justin).
(looking at the pictures we drew).
I don't like that snake. That snake not talking with that lady. That lady NOT being bad. That lady stay in nice garden. That snake being bad! and then laughter...SNAKES DON"T TALK Mommy!!!!!
I COULD NOT budge him.
The story was wrong.
The lady was just fine. She was not going to be fake. That man was bad and shouldn't listen to the snake. That man shouldn't talk with that snake in the nice place. and snakes really don't talk.
Children....stretch you sometimes......
So how would you handle this? Because I'm stumped!
On an interesting note though while going through this lesson with Justin I discovered this:
In Genesis three I read this:
He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" 2And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"But in Genesis Two God's actual command was this:
16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."So Eve not only listened to the snake challenging what she thought God said...she actually changed what God had said in the first place. I just found that enlightening.
4 comments:
That's interesting, how J reacted. Maybe he's just not ready for those concepts yet.
I absolutely love his handiwork you sent in the Christmas card!!! It's on the refrigerator. It's been so very long since I had refrigerator art to enjoy -- thank you! :)
no he's not ready for that. Just makes it hard to explain why we need God so much in our lives.
What a wonderful time to start teaching "Let God be true though all men are liars" (Rom 3:4)! In fact, this is exactly Satan's approach to Eve: "Did God say?" Little ones may not be able to see it clearly, but it can't be left alone. We don't get to decide what is or isn't true.
As for Eve's addition, I see it as absolutely typical legalism. "He said not to eat of that tree. To avoid temptation, then, I'll make it illegal to get near the tree." Let's try it in other forms. "It's a sin to get drunk, so we'll say that any alcohol at all is a sin." Start to sound familiar? (The problem, of course, is that her overstatement of what God said didn't help her avoid transgressing it.)
very true Stan. We can change whatever we want with God's word.... the thing is though...are we actually following it? (even as we change it)
With Justin I figure I'll just keep telling him the bible stories and as he matures it will be easier to explain the things that he just doesn't get yet.
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