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| Image courtesy of Kenneth Russell via Picasa |
A few weeks ago, Sender and I were laying in his bed talking about flying in a plane. He is the only one in our family that has never done so, but I was telling him that one day he will.
Suddenly, he said, "What if we fly in a plane, and we crash, and I die, and I haven't been baptized?" Wow. Flying, crashing, dying, baptizing. What a loaded sentence! (The crashing and dying probably has to do with our recent discussions about 9-11.)
He was a little concerned and even distressed, and I asked why it bothered him that he wasn't baptized. "Because then I won't go to heaven." I explained that he doesn't have to be baptized in order to go to heaven. And this led to a talk about who has been baptized in our family -- Mommy, me, and Hannah.
Then, I asked him, "What do you have to do to go to heaven?" and he answered, "Believe in Jesus." That's right. We were on the right track. But then he added this:
"Satan doesn't believe in Jesus."
Oh, interesting point. But I explained that Satan and his bad angels (demons) actually do believe in Jesus, in a sense. The Bible (James 2:19) is clear that they believe that Jesus is God. The difference is that they don't follow and obey God.
So, as I explained to Sender, maybe we should say that we need to believe in and follow Jesus.
The Conclusion
What a great conversation. We went from talking about planes to crashing to baptizing to salvation to believing to Satan to following. I got to help make theology practical for him.
You can't script moments like this. But I don't take advantage of the precious time I have with my kids like this as much as I should.
Related Links:
- 10 Principles for Shepherding My Child Through Salvation and Baptism
- My Son Is Not Ready to Become a Christian
- Kenya vs Hannah
- Lesson Learned from Toy Story 3: We Belong to God
Thanks so much for sharing this! I was just watching the 180 video and the guy who did the video was trying to explain the essence of salvation to non-believers. He likened God and Jesus to a parachute, and said you can believe in the existence of a parachute. You can know it is there and know what it does and how it functions, but until you strap it on, it can't save you. I thought that was a good analogy for the difference between saying you believe there is a God and actually following him and cloaking yourself in him and the salvation that comes through Christ. I filed it away as something that might be a good analogy for kids. Satan believes God exists, but he's certainly not strapping on the parachute of Christ's sacrifice.
ReplyDeleteGreat analogy, Vanessa. Will definitely use that with my kids. What's the 180 video?
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly not a kid appropriate video. One of my Facebook friends posted a link to it this morning: http://www.180movie.com/
ReplyDeleteIt is sort of all-over the place... starts out about lack of awareness of the holocaust, then links it to abortion, then general message of sin/Christ/salvation.
I loved the parachute bit though. It was a great visual.