* A Legitimate Question

I still plan to blog about our schedule at some point, although I am restraining from going on and on about how someone cut her hair again right in the middle of her forehead because her "part looked weird." Seemingly in response to my statement that his sister was hogging the stage my son spoke up.

Having a daily Bible time is a constant goal of ours, one we hardly ever live up to to our satisfaction. In a renewed effort the kids and myself sat down the other day to go over the day's God Time Card. The previous day's card talked about creation, etc so we had read the opening of Genesis in a bible story book we had received as a gift at some point in the past. The next day the talk was supposed to center around John 3:16. This topic held no interest for my son because it was not in order. So we quickly went through the concept in order to return to Genesis for the next story in the book. We discussed Adam and Eve's poor choice of fruit. This just happened to be the story from the previous Sunday so clearly the ideas had been percolating in his head.

(Might I say that having children and teaching them about God is quite the faith stretching exercise. You think that teaching adults would be the most challenging in the faith arena but I would challenge that assumption. Answering a child's question can be amazingly difficult.)

After talking about following God's rules and the concept of obedience in general, my son asks...

"Why didn't God just not put that tree in the garden?"

A legitimate question.

No tree. No disobedience. No fall. No banishment.

Similar logic to my daughter from previously - if I had not put the scissors in reach she would not have cut her hair, so clearly her disobedience was my fault. If God had not put the tree there, they would not have eaten, so clearly....

I am interested in your thoughts. How to explain that God wasn't just setting them up.

This was my response to my son.

"Could God make us follow all the rules?" - Mom

"Yes" - son

"You're right, he could. But he wants us to follow him on our own. He wants us to choose to do the right thing. He will always give us a choice. We can choose to make the wise choice. We can choose to make a bad choice. Adam and Eve needed to have a choice too."

I am not sure how much sinks in. I am sure there is a better answer, but those questions come at you without any preparation. What thrills me is the insight into his thinking process. My little man is getting so big. That question took abstract reasoning, and it was a very legitimate question.