God Makes Ketchup

I have been struggling to explain who God is to S & K.

I know they have been to church. In fact, in the midst of S's ramblings in the back seat, I heard her say, "Lord (pronounced "Lawd"), give me POWER." and another time she was running around, pretending to hand out what I can only guess were Gospel tracts while saying over and over again "God (pronounced "Gawd") is MOVING today.". I can imagine their church experience involved women who wear hats, a swaying choir in robes, and a preacher who gets a sweaty forehead as he points his index finger to the sky and yells.

But when I ask them who God is, I get a blank stare. They've had a lot of religion without knowing what is behind all of that. How do I tell them about their Creator? Their Abba Father? Jehovah Jirah? Jehovah Raphe?

I started by explaining to K that God made her and many wonderful things around her. I asked her to think of things God made, thinking she would say "the sky" or "the grass". Instead, she listed ketchup, furniture, her shirt. She views God as a manufacturer of goods, I guess. I started to explain to her that God created the elements that go into those things without actually sitting at the sewing machine or carpenter's bench and then realized that I was speaking to a four-year-old.

S is quicker to pick up on the use of Jesus' name in prayer, the songs, the Bible stories. But I don't just want her to become an encylopedia of head knowledge about God. My desire is for both of them to know Him, to make the choice for themselves to follow Christ's example and commandments, and not just to do things because their mom and dad did.

For now, we are trying to lay the foundation by teaching them the stories of the Bible, teaching them to pray, to be respectful of God's holiness, teaching them psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (good thing I am the only one who knows how to load songs on the MP3 players for them because I'm sure they'd rather have Hannah Montana and High School Musical). And we pray for the day when they have a full understanding of salvation and make that choice for themselves.

Until then, they keep hoping God makes more ketchup.