Who is God?

My three-year-old son lives in a world where shoes have blinky lights, tooth brushes play music, and phones are used for playing games and looking at pictures.  In his world God is someone we talk about before we eat and before we go to bed.  Jesus is some person he has never seen and who, according to the song, loves him. 

Before bed I will sometimes read him a book or tell him a story.  His favorite is Jonah and the whale. (I know, I know. The Bible says “great fish” and not whale, but he doesn’t know what a big fish is.  Anything bigger than a goldfish is a whale to him.  When he sees a shark on TV he calls it a whale with teeth. So I went with whale).  The main emphasis of the story is that God saved Jonah.

So after telling him this story for the 17^th time, he looked at me with his big brown eyes and asked, “Who is God?”  This is the question that every Christian father yearns to hear.  I was filled with excitement and joy.

 But how do I explain the person of God to a three-year-old.  To be completely honest, I still haven’t wrapped my mind around the concept of who God truly and fully is.  So how do I describe the essence of God’s character in a way that fits inside the little boy’s world?

I decided to stress two tenets of God’s character.

1. God is powerful.  God made the world.  He made me and you.  He made the moon, the trees, monkeys, penguins and everything else.  God is strong, and He can do anything.  That’s why we ask Him to help us, because He can do what we can’t.

2. God is good.  He is never bad and never messes up.  He wants good things for you.  He provides for our needs, and gives us comfort and happiness.  He loves you very much.

I feel that’s a good starting point.  I pray to the God of salvation that as my son grows in age and knowledge that his spiritual eyes will be opened to the fullness of God’s self-revelation.