Swap Shop is a place to exchange ideas for activities in Sunday school; share your success stories in teaching the Bible to children; and provide ways to foster a love for the Bible.

Swap Shop - Who is God?

Sunday school teacher from San Jose shares an idea on how to explain God.

Have you ever had difficulty explaining who God is? I have a pupil in my Sunday school class who is yearning to learn about God. This is her first religious training and she is ten years old. The other members of the class have tried to find a way to explain God without much success. Then one Sunday, I asked, “When I say the name Jason – who do you think of?” They were all quick to describe the Jasons in their lives. I then asked about Susie? Brandon? Corey? Jenny? They all knew someone with that name and were ready with physical characteristics that brought that person clearly in thought.

I asked them to shift from physical descriptions of size, hair, eye color, and style of dress to qualities that described these persons, like happy, trustworthy, loyal, kind, and supportive. It wasn’t a quick rehearsal of traits, but they thoughtfully pondered the implications. We had a long list of qualities that described their friends. Then I shifted to making a list of the types of qualities we want to see in our friends – our best friend.

Their list consisted of: loyalty, loving, kind, good listener, reliable, respectful, fun, caring, wise, supportive, intelligent, creative. I then asked, “When I say God, what do you think?” The responses were slow in coming. So I asked them, “If you can describe Susie and Jason – shouldn’t you understand and know God sufficiently to list characteristics for God?”

They hadn’t thought about God in those terms. As we began to include their list of qualities for God, they discovered they were very much like the list for best friend. We then discussed the role of God in our lives as parent, teacher, friend, “a present help in trouble.” Their responses led to the “a-ha’s” in consciousness that helped them to better understand God and His role in their lives. One of the girls left Sunday school telling her sister from another class, “I discovered God was my best friend, today.”

Helping our children really understand who God is is an all-important lesson.