The Theologians
As my son in law drove his two little boys, Preston and Bailey, to swimming lessons the conversation suddenly swerved. Daddy what is hell?
Now, Scott is not the kind of person who uses hell to try to scare people into heaven, but he does believe in hell as it is described in the Bible, so he embarked on the delicate and little traveled road of trying to explain the concept to his boys.
“Yes there is a hell, and the Bible says that it’s a place of fire and suffering.”
Silence, followed by a question from Preston.
“Will the fire kill you?”
Another detour, this one down the narrow path of understanding flesh and spirit. judgement and mercy. Scott took a deep breath and pushed on.
“Even though we die, our spirit lives forever.”
He carefully steered the boys through the tough theology of heaven and hell and responded to their thoughtful questions about the fire and suffering.
There was another period of silence and Scott felt sure the boys were contemplating their simple grasp of how their spirit would live forever and because of their faith in Christ they would spend eternity in heaven and never have to experience the fires of hell.
Suddenly they were back on the real freeway of life. The boys were fighting over a piece of paper. Scott reached back and snatched the paper from them. Preston responded immediately,
“You almost gave me a paper cut……………………….. That would hurt like hell!” Evidently they understood the concept!
Scott drove off the road. When I heard the story so did I.
What have you heard from the mouths of babes?
Comments
Great Post Ken!
Thank you for commenting Fred.
Seven years ago my husband (who is now deceased) and I were driving our two grandsons down the road when the youngest one who was four years old said” Well, I’m not going to Hell cause I’m saved. We thought it very profound and proud that our son had talked to them about that place.
Thank yoiu Linda!
Awesome! Thanks for the post!
YOur welcome Tammy, Thanks for commenting.
I drove 45 miles to church with three children five and under and stopped in the parking lot when my motion sick three year old promptly vomitted. We stripped him down to his spiderman undies and went inside to await fresh clothes from a kind church member. As we were standing in the foyer, my son began to sing with the worship team, “Come, just as you are to worship….come, just as you are before your God”….somehow seeing his childlike faith standing naked in his spiderman undies drove home how welcoming is God to his children.
Carmen, I laughed so hard at this and then I thought. We all are in our spiderman undies and God loves us just the way we are. Out of the mouths of babes.
My sweet boy says we cannot watch that Jesus movie (Jesus of Nazareth) any more because those people are too mean to Jesus.
Wow! I love listening to children. Thanks Tara