Kids have great questions… and they have a tonne of them!

So a new feature of our monthly Sunday Buddies program is an opportunity for the kids to submit their own questions about God, life or the Bible. Then, the next time they have Sunday Buddies, we’ll answer a bunch of those same questions.

The first round of questions were submitted in May, and the first round of answers came in June. Even more will be given when the Sunday Buddies program resumes after the summer in September.

This post includes the questions just as they were asked, and also the answers that were provided (by me, Matthew). I’ve had to condense and do my best to word the answers in a way that makes sense to younger children too.

By posting these, I’m hoping for two things: (1) that parents, grandparents and caregivers will be better informed about the kinds of questions kids are asking, and (2) that our children will continue to know that we take them and their questions seriously.

Honest questions can be building blocks to a stronger, more authentic faith.

Honest questions can be building blocks to a stronger, more authentic faith. #WPCBarrie

— Westminster Church (@WestminsterPC) June 22, 2017

Q1 – How did God create the animals?
A1 – God is able to simply speak and create things. Just as he said “Let there be light” and light appeared (Genesis 1:3) he also said “Let the land produce living creatures…” (Genesis 1:24). God speaks and things are made.

Q2 – What gave God the idea of life?
A2 – God gave himself the idea of life.

Q3 – Who is God?
A3 – God is the maker of heaven and earth. He is the almighty, powerful and loving Creator. He is also your Saviour, meaning that he saves you from death and punishment and meaninglessness. The Bible teaches us that God is Trinity. This means he is one God who appears to us as three Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Q4 – Who am I loved by?
A4 – You are probably loved by a lot of people. But the Bible tells us that we are loved by God. In fact, he loved you so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for you. This love is so strong that nothing can stop it. No matter what you do, God will always love you, and he will always want the best for you.

Q5 – How was the Bible made?
A5 – The Bible was written by dozens of people over hundreds of years. Through time, people collected the different books that had been written, so that people in the next generations could learn about Jesus and God’s truth and love. But even though it was written by people, those people were inspired by God. That means that God caused them to write the words down so that the Bible we have is what God wanted us to have. The word “Bible” is simply a Greek word that means “book.”

Q6 – When will the world end and why?
A6 – We don’t know when the world will end. Matthew 24:36 says that “no one knows.” But even though we don’t know much about when it will happen, we do know a bit about why it is going to happen. It will happen because God wants to make everything good again. Our world is broken. So one day, Jesus will return to judge between right and wrong, and will re-make everything to how it should be. This will be called “the new heavens and the new earth.” In this new heavens and earth there will be no pain or crying—just celebrating and goodness for all of God’s people.

Q7 – Is Jesus happy or sad?
A7 – In the stories in the Bible, it really depends on what is happening. Sometimes Jesus seems to be happy (like when the little children come to him in Matthew 19:13-14). But sometimes he is sad. An example of when he was sad was when he cried after his friend Lazarus had died (You can read about that in John 11:35).

Q8 – What does Jesus look like?
A8 – We don’t know what Jesus looks like. You may have seen pictures of him, but those are guesses that different artists make. Amazingly, none of the Bible stories tells us what he looks like. The only reference to his appearance is in a teaching about him in Isaiah 53:2: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” That means he was probably quite average in how he looked. However, as a Jewish man who lived in Palestine in the 1st century, he probably would have had dark, wavy hair, olive-brown skin, and dark eyes.

Q9 – What does Jesus eat?
A9 – While on earth, Jesus would have eaten normal food like bread or fish. In heaven, we just don’t know what kinds of food are needed to nourish our bodies, if any.

Q10 – Was Jesus married and did he have a ring?
A10 – Jesus was never married—so no, he didn’t have a ring.

(Note: This question may come out of modern conspiracy theorists who suggest it would have been abnormal for a religious Jewish man like Jesus to be un-married in the 1st century. Popular movies like the DaVinci Code suggest he was married… to Mary Magdalene! These claims are totally without historical basis. Plus, there are massive piles of historical evidence of religious Jewish males being single in the first century.)

Q11 – Why do we sing to Jesus?
A11 – When we sing worship or praise songs in church (or on the radio or at VBS), we sing to God. God is Trinity which means he is one God who comes to us in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Since Jesus is both man and God, we sing to him as a part of the Trinity, of God. One of the places where the Bible talks about worshiping Jesus is Philippians 2:10: “…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow”

Look for more questions and answers in September when we dive into things like angels, suffering and heaven…