“Is God a boy or a girl?” asked my almost three-year-old granddaughter.
It’s amazing how their minds work at such young ages! Children fascinate me, especially the the ones I’m related to!
I don’t know what stirred her curiosity, but her endearing, inquisitive self was totally prepared for an answer.
I might add, at her age, her concrete thinking likely expected a one-word answer, “boy” or “girl”. Simple.
How would you answer the question?
Maybe you have … what did you say?
It’s easy to give one-word answers. It’s harder to introduce more complexity, but often one word does not provide accuracy. I realize children often require simplistic foundational answers to build on, but providing truth is important too.
So, I asked, “What did Daddy say?”
Daddy chimed in, “I told her God is probably neither girl nor boy. He is God, not a person. But God says he makes us in His image, so he might be like a girl and a boy in some ways.”
I expressed my agreement with Daddy.
Her response, “Okay!”
Isn’t it interesting that her young mind didn’t need an absolute? She curiously wanted an answer. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t clear or unambiguous, that was “okay”!
I’ve heard people answer … “Oh, God is a male. Jesus refers him as Father. And, God referred to Jesus as a Son! Plus, in human form he was a male.” That sounds simple and concrete. I realize, even here, I refer to God as “He”. It’s because the Bible reads that way and I largely understand my relationship to him in a Fatherly context. It doesn’t mean I think that is the absolutely definitive right answer.
I actually think … who could know?
God is so beyond human perimeters, how could I possibly understand? He created genders, but for me, it doesn’t mean he is one. He is holy and perfect and beyond my brain’s capacity.
What if the way Jesus described God is more for our understanding? I believe he used terms we could grasp and relate to. It’s easy for humans to understand “Father” and “Son”. Those are relationships we know from human experience. God set about to explain himself to his creations. It makes perfect sense to me that the all-knowing God would use words we easily relate to. But, I am not naïve enough, in my human brain, to think they explain all of God when he is beyond my brain’s ability to process.
One other observation, if Jesus or God had not portrayed themselves as males, I believe they would have been instantly rejected by the culture and society they longed to save. It was a male dominated and lead society. They would not have accepted a female as God, ever!
So, do I think God is a girl or boy?
I agree with “neither.” He is one of a kind, supreme and wholly incomprehensible!
I don’t need concrete finite answers. If I can fully explain God, then I don’t want him as my God. He is beyond what I can imagine. I don’t need to put him in the box of my understanding. I am “okay” with not completely understanding him until my brain is transformed into a heavenly one.
By the way, it is “okay” if you do not agree with me. It’s a matter that cannot be explained truly until our heavenly sight. I can be wrong! The older I get, the less I know. The universe gets bigger and bigger. I can live with question marks and answers beyond my comprehension. Defining things is not always necessary. I can live with possibilities that could all prove wrong in the end.
Faith does not demand fully understanding God. To have a relationship with the One supreme God does not necessitate us agreeing on every conceivable possibility. There are basics that make us Christ followers, but not every question comes down to one simple answer.
Humanness limits our minds, therefore, our answers are limited too when it concerns The-One-True-God; maker of heaven and earth.
Is God a girl or a boy?
How would/did you answer?
I’m okay not being sure how to define him.
So was my “Goldie Girl”!
What’s that verse …. Oh yeah …
“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3–4).
Do you think humility starts with admitting we don’t have all the answers, like a child?
Yet, we ask, seek and find resolution in not completely knowing, like Goldie with her Daddy’s answer.
Jesus said, there is a payoff for that kind of faith. Read the end of that verse again.
Food for thought!
“Okay” with questions,
Elaine Stone 