Here follows a transcript of a bedtime conversation: 

“What is God’s mummy called?”…….
… “God doesn’t have a mummy. Jesus had a mummy and she was called Mary.”  
“When was God born?”……………..
…”God wasn’t born the way you were.” 
“How did He get to be a grown-up then?”……….
.... “God isn’t a grown-up. God isn’t a person in the same way that you are.”
 “ What is God if He’s not a grown-up?”……….
...  “God is like Love…He’s everywhere.” 
 “Was He around with the dinosaurs?”…
..“Yes.”   ….“Is that okay?” 
“Yeah.”  

As much as I enjoy theological discussion and debate I don’t usually engage in such deep questions/answers last thing at night (disturbs my sleep pattern!) however this questioner can be quite insistent and will not be fobbed off with “ask me tomorrow”. Lying there in the dark suddenly questions that appear simple became quite complicated in my head and it was a struggle to find ordinary language to explain a quite extraordinary thing—that God should be the omnificent, omnipresent, omni patient “Something” that our ‘souls’ respond to. (Had to look the words up in the dictionary!). But hey, they seemed satisfied with my answers - until next time.

P.S How do you explain “soul” to a 5 year old?

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