Second: What’s God like and how can we know?
The honesty of children can sometimes be a surprise. In very brief words and with questioning eyes we hear many versions of this pair of questions, “What’s God like? How do we know Him?” To a young person, the world seems like it is a set of rules and requirements to become something. Then concepts of a supreme God are often twisted into performance of being good to get better or successful. Or they find that copying adults, who seem to know God, seems unsatisfying, because it is a practiced trait but not from their heart. The result is a perception of God being a grand taskmaster rather than a relationship maker.
So, we explain the motivation of the God of the Bible as love, and He does not change. It’s easy to explain to an older seeker or a young child with this part of John 3:16: “God so loved that He gave.” He already knows things are broken and messed up, but it does not change His intention to love us. At the same time, His love does not compromise His righteousness and judgment. So, the rest of the verse explains the important part about having to believe in Him. Just like a caring adult will pick up a dirty or mixed up or naughty child, God picks us up if we let Him, but we must choose to let Him. Once we let Him, He does not leave us in our tangled mess. He begins to change us and clean us up as we walk forward with Him, but He starts deep inside. When that kind of love touches a person, it can be perceived! It answers the question, “How can we know God?” Just like sheep knowing the sound of the shepherd, our heart recognizes something within has changed when we are born again into His family. He intends to change our walk and talk so we become fruitful – with hearts affected by His love. And we get to know Him better as that process proceeds.
They ask, “Can we hear Him? Can we talk to Him?” Absolutely, but it’s a learned thing as we walk. How does a baby learn to talk? How does he learn to hear his father or mother? It’s just that we hear the Father from the heart, or the words of the Bible come alive like never before. We talk with our mouth or thoughts, so do the same with God. It’s not meant to be complicated. Turning and being born again opens up the path, and what a path it is! Maybe that is why Jesus says in Matthew 13:3 “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
