Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

Trinity Terror

Published by

Matt Stone

2008-05-18

I was a proud and amused dad the other day. The story is, as I arrived home from work and my wife and I caught up on the events of the day, she informed me, with some apprehension in her voice, that she’d been forced to explain the Trinity to our son during the day.

“He’s only four!” she said. “Well, he is my son,” I reminded her with a cheeky grin, “In a few years time he’ll either be an atheist or correcting the pastor.” Hmmm, she said.

But in truth I was just glad the task fell on her (looks around to check wife not looking over shoulder) because he was so very close to asking the hard questions the night before that I’d been getting a little apprehensive myself. His mind is getting sharper and sharper but he doesn’t yet have the language or life experience to understand what
understanding I have to offer. It’s far, far easier to answer older people. I think he’s rapidly becoming my greatest challenge. Anyway, I’m sure my wife will get revenge one of these days and hand him over to me for the sex question. Hmmm.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, he did seem reasonably satisfied with how she explained everything … for the moment … till he takes it to the next level.

Tags Parenting, Trinity

5 responses to “Trinity Terror”

Mike Lowe

2008-05-20

I remember driving my six-year-old son to school and being asked “why does God let people do really bad things”? Kids ask the best questions!
The sad thing is when adults shut down the questions – either with patronizing narrow answers or by implying that it is a dumb question. My observation is that it is normal for kids of this age to be asking the really big questions. It is part of their developing spirituality. The fact that so few adults ask these questions says something about how we raise children.

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Isaiah

2008-05-22

I love the trinity, but absolutely hate that diagram!
How can you explain something as wonderful as the way God works in the lives of may by using a diagram?

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Matt Stone

2008-05-22

I would agree no diagram can “capture” God but some people are very visual and find it aids understanding. Think of the way a map relates to a territory. Though a map is never anything more than an approximation, and can never convey the full, rich experience of walking across a landscape, maps can nevertheless guide people through a territory and help them past pitfalls. Some people hate reading maps, others love them.

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Lucy J

2008-05-22

The Trinity is a “never-ending story” for me and the chapters have been diverse… brought up Lutheran and taught the catechism; journeyed through Pentecostalism, Batist-ism, interdenominationalism, Biblical Feminism, Egalitarianism etc. Last year, I went to a conference called ‘Better Together’ which educated me enough to understand what Stackhouse is saying in the article which I enjoyed reading. I must say that I agree that theologising on the Trinity is not the most helpful in terms of Christians legislating gender roles! I have discovered some wonderful concepts on the Trinity in relation to Worship, though…
Lucy J

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sally

2008-05-23

hmm, my 4 yr old asked “why do the dead in Christ rise first?”- he is 22 now and studying at Bible College!!!

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