God Informs His Thinking

I am tickled at how God informs John's thinking on all manner of subjects. There have been two examples lately that made me chuckle at their sweetness.

1. Several times while I have been pushing the kids on the swings, they have complained that I don't push as high as Daddy does. I explained that Daddy is stronger than me. When asked why, I said that most grown men are stronger than most grown ladies and, when asked why about that, I said that's how God designed our bodies. Fast forward to one day out and about when John noticed a woman with long fingernails and he asked me about it later. I said that ladies often wear their nails longer than men do. He asked why Daddy wears his nails short and I said that when men do work with their hands, long nails would get in the way, so men tend to wear short nails (not getting into explanations of cultural history of men doing manual labor and how, when women were recently freed from manual labor, they could begin growing their nails long as a sign of privilege). Then John pondered seriously, "Maybe God gave ladies longer fingernails so that they couldn't do the work that men do."

Delightful! But then I explained how God doesn't determine our fingernail length, it's just something that we grow, and I showed him that I keep my fingernails fairly short too (for a lady) because I hold babies often and do a lot of work with my hands.

2. John was telling me over breakfast that human beings are omnivores, which means that we eat everything: plants, meat, everything. Then he suggested that we plant a fruit tree in our yard so that we can eat some fruit. I explained that our yard does not have enough sunlight to grow fruits or vegetables. Why not? Because we have so many tall trees. Let's cut them down. Well, we can't cut them down because our homeowners' association doesn't allow it. That led to a discussion of John saying that when he is a grown-up, he wants to move to a house with a sunny yard so he can grow fruits and vegetables.

But then I saw something connect in his brain and he pointed out to me energetically, "But the Garden where Adam and Eve lived was full of trees and bushes and vines, and it had the Tree of Good and Evil in it. No, it was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And it grew fruit. So, it must have had enough sun! There must not have been any other trees right around the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Right?"

I said that it's true, the Tree must have received enough sunlight to grow fruit. I love how he is connecting scientific truths and God's revealed truth in his four-year-old way!

And then, as an aside, John proceeded to tell me the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden, the snake, the trickery, the reasoning, and their being expelled from the garden. He even got nuanced details right about God knowing what was best for us, how God told the rule to Adam, how Adam told it to Eve, and how the snake tricked Eve. I wonder if Daddy recently read him the story because I haven't!

I'm loving this!