The incident that triggered this post happened when my son was about 7 years old. At that time. he had become fascinated by 'black holes' , especially their immensely powerful gravitational pull, that won't let let anything (even light) escape if it gets too close. He was also a very religious kid.
One day, he came to me and said that he is very concerned that 'God might fall into a black hole'! It was a very interesting statement. While most of the adults tend to separate ' the spiritual from the material', and hence won't make such statements, no such distinction exists in the mind of a child. So the challenge was to give him an answer which he can understand (within his worldview) and is also not 'wrong'.
So, I told him the following. "Since God has created the universe, He knows where the black holes are and hence there is no danger of God accidentally falling into a black hole". When, my son was a bit older, I gave him a better answer. "The gravitational pull of a black hole affects only material objects. Since God is not made of matter, black holes won't have any impact on Him'!
I remember this incident for many reasons. First, when it comes to fundamental questions, our answers should evolve as our understanding and our worldview evolves. Second, it reminds me of the interactions that I used to have with my father, when I was a child. I also, used to ask my father a lot of questions. He used to take a lot of care to give me answers that I can understand and are at least 'directionally correct'.
For example, if I ask him why I should not put anything into an power socket, he would say something like "there is fire inside the socket and you will get burned if you insert anything into it". This is a great answer to a child who is too young to understand electricity and electric shock but understands the damage fire can do. While other answers like "there is a demon inside the socket and it would catch you if you poke it' would have also kept me away from the power socket, it would have unnecessarily complicated my worldview and and might even have led to me not trusting his responses when I grow up. Similarly, if he had just dismissed my question as silly or asked me just to obey without asking questions, it would have made me feel rejected and/or rebellious.
I am very grateful to my father for spending so much time with me, for patiently listening to all my (childish/child like) questions and ideas, and for giving me responses that enabled me to feel understood and affirmed, to explore more and to develop a balanced perspective. It is not only the 'sins' of the father, but also the 'good deeds of the father' that impacts the future generations!
One day, he came to me and said that he is very concerned that 'God might fall into a black hole'! It was a very interesting statement. While most of the adults tend to separate ' the spiritual from the material', and hence won't make such statements, no such distinction exists in the mind of a child. So the challenge was to give him an answer which he can understand (within his worldview) and is also not 'wrong'.
So, I told him the following. "Since God has created the universe, He knows where the black holes are and hence there is no danger of God accidentally falling into a black hole". When, my son was a bit older, I gave him a better answer. "The gravitational pull of a black hole affects only material objects. Since God is not made of matter, black holes won't have any impact on Him'!
I remember this incident for many reasons. First, when it comes to fundamental questions, our answers should evolve as our understanding and our worldview evolves. Second, it reminds me of the interactions that I used to have with my father, when I was a child. I also, used to ask my father a lot of questions. He used to take a lot of care to give me answers that I can understand and are at least 'directionally correct'.
For example, if I ask him why I should not put anything into an power socket, he would say something like "there is fire inside the socket and you will get burned if you insert anything into it". This is a great answer to a child who is too young to understand electricity and electric shock but understands the damage fire can do. While other answers like "there is a demon inside the socket and it would catch you if you poke it' would have also kept me away from the power socket, it would have unnecessarily complicated my worldview and and might even have led to me not trusting his responses when I grow up. Similarly, if he had just dismissed my question as silly or asked me just to obey without asking questions, it would have made me feel rejected and/or rebellious.
I am very grateful to my father for spending so much time with me, for patiently listening to all my (childish/child like) questions and ideas, and for giving me responses that enabled me to feel understood and affirmed, to explore more and to develop a balanced perspective. It is not only the 'sins' of the father, but also the 'good deeds of the father' that impacts the future generations!
1 comment:
Moral guilt is often a huge problem a lot of us in the faith face, especially the deep rooted ones. Forgiveness comes to adults as we accept the need for forgiveness and receive the Lord's grace and restore relationship with the Creator. My sense of guilt was deep and I have taken the other extreme of emphasis on unmerited favor too much, but a healthy balance helps. Our generation is probably the last one to accept the world view of Biblical universalism. The future is going to be pluralistic and multi cultural...and diverse. I hope our kids live up to the promise of our Fathers' faith in the Scriptures in a balanced way...
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