Today in church I lead the three and four year olds in the worship center. While reading a book about creation, one of the first pages in the book had this question: “Who named the animals?” Immediately many of the kids responded by saying “God”. Abram had not responded so Jackson, Abram’s older cousin, nudged Abram and told him “Say ‘God’”. Abram dutifully responded by saying “God” confident that he got the answer right. After all, when you’re in church “God” is a pretty safe answer to most questions, right? In this case the answer was “Adam” but I just let it ride and concentrated on pointing out the different animals on the page.
My husband and I laughed about this after church and talked about how kids know that “God” is an answer that, if it isn’t right, at least they get credit for talking about God. Should I have stopped to correct the kids right away? Maybe – although I doubt that many of them will have a warped view of the story of Adam and Eve for their whole lives because I didn’t correct them. But maybe the lesson that I reinforced was actually a better one. As these kids grow and move on in their lives I hope they remember that when they are in doubt, the answer is God. When things aren’t going well, the answer is God. When they are having a great year the answer is still God. This lesson – God is our first and best answer – is probably the most important lesson they might ever learn.