Recently I asked some of the mamas of littles in our church, "What God questions are your kids asking?" While not definitive, here are some answers I trust you'll find helpful.

Who made God?

God has always existed. No one made God. Everything that has been made, has been made by someone or something else. Eventually, when we go back far enough, there has to be a Someone or a Something that is eternal-that was not created. Smart thinkers called philosophers call this an "uncaused cause."

You were Meant for Today!

It was quite a shock when I found out I was pregnant, for the third time, nearly 5 years after having given birth to my last little bundle of joy.  To complicate matters, we received the news just weeks after we announced that we would be moving from our beloved community, leaving behind a life of ministry and part-time jobs that I loved.  

Every day we set them for ourselves and others and they are also set for you by others.  They are sometimes really low and sometimes really high but rarely are there none.  They judge, define and always create some level of anticipation.  They are a part of every relationship, every situation, every dream and really every thought that comes out of our brain.  They are (cue the booming drum sound Bom-Bom-Bom) – Expectations!

Today my guest blogger is Eva Burkholder. She writes about the weight of unfinished tasks. Eva (MACE, Columbia International University) is a missionary kid, wife, mother of two sons and a daughter-in-law, former cross-cultural worker, and missionary member care provider. Eva and her husband of thirty-one years live in Richardson, Texas. She blogs regularly at www.evaburkholder.com. Look for Eva's devotional on the life of Mary, available later this year.

I like to cross things off my to-do list. I use tear-off notepads and make lists and lists of what needs to get done today and in the coming days. My lists include unwanted tasks as well as life-giving ones. Then I set to work to accomplish them and cross them off. Done. Finished. Wrapped up. Nice and neat. List tossed in the trash. While some of my friends enjoy the process, I find more delight in the completion. Only then can I rest.

Problem is, so much is incomplete right now. Rarely do I ever get to the end of the list. On most days, a few items get carried over to my new list when the old paper is full and needs to be thrown away. Because stuff is never totally done, I live limbo. Waiting for the email answer, for the conference to be over, for the casserole to bake, for the check out line, for….for…for…And so I don’t rest.

What is important?

After reading again today the obituary of a precious dad and father my thoughts ran back to 2011 when we lost the last of our parents. They had lived a robust life and loved living on the farm amidst tractors and plants. Daddy F. loved the new fallen snow and loved going out to use his favorite tool, the snow-blower---even at the ripe old age of 95! I had prayed that Mother B would live to celebrate their 73^rd wedding anniversary and God answered. Daddy F. died 18 days later. It was bittersweet.

Genesis 3:8–17
Time: The dawn of human history
Place: Eden
 
Lesson Aim: To acknowledge that sin disrupts our relationship with God.
 
Introduction
 
Elizabeth was folding sheets in the bedroom when Matthew, her six year old, came in looking as if he were ready for Halloween. His face and arms were covered with decorative swirls of blue and green marker ink. Wide–eyed, his mother asked, “What happened to you?”

Not long ago, I overhead a female ministry leader noting with some enthusiasm that we are seeing the first generation in Christendom in which women have received theological higher education. But her statement, while well intentioned, was completely untrue.

Suppose you heard that a vacation town had built a first-class theater and people attended in droves because the productions were that good.

Suppose you paid your $66 dollars for tickets to a comedic, farcical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and drove an hour to get there.

Suppose you arrived early enough to attend the "Pre-Show Chat”--a presentation that focused on how Austen liked to challenge the rigidity of Victorian social, class and gender divisions. And "true to her spirit," this production would champion diversity in gender roles so that you could “look beyond superficial gender distinctions to better see and appreciate the inner character” of the players.

I smoked my first cigarette in high school and continued for seven years. I so thoroughly enjoyed smoking that I overlooked the ridiculousness of my hiding my habit by popping breath mints, spraying perfume, and ducking into alleys for a smoke. It took seven years for me to see the hypocrisy of my hiding and the degree of my enslavement. I cried out to God and within two weeks I had quit–cold turkey. No patch. No pills. It was a miracle–a swift deliverance that sparked my fledgling faith in God.  

I attended grad school in San Francisco in the 90’s. Each week a group of Christian students, faculty, and staff would gather in one of the small classrooms on the top floor for our CMDS meeting. This room had a floor-to-ceiling view of the Golden Gate Bridge where I can still picture the cars driving Northbound towards Sausalito. I adored the cute rainbow-painted tunnel arcs where the bridge merged with Marin County. My beloved friend’s uncle had painted those rainbows there many years prior.