A New Birth Story

People often talk about how easily children believe in God -- or whatever you tell them. That has never been true for Noah. When he was 3 or 4, he would question whether angels are real or whether God could hear our prayers. As one who has consistently probed various church doctrines to make sure they're sound, I could get behind this. We absolutely want our boys to be critical thinkers. So we just committed to encouraging and answering his questions as they came.

And then suddenly he was 6 years old, and he understood all he really needed to know. It all seemed to pile up in one day, last Sunday:

1) The communion plate had to pass him by in worship service (as usual, but this time it really struck me),*
2) His Sunday school teacher pointed out that he knows "all the answers."
3) He and Josh listened to the audio from my Bible study teaching last week, about how Jesus offers us "eternal life," and Noah seemed really excited about it.

Which led to a conversation Sunday night about how we decide whether we want to follow Jesus. We've discussed it several times over the past year and have encouraged him to ask others how they made that decision. Frankly, at 6, I'm not sure how much he can possibly understand the concept of placing his functional trust in Jesus and resting in His finished work rather than his own fickle desires or efforts to be "good enough." It's a lot to take in. BUT, I kept hearing Matthew 19:14 playing in my head: Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Plus, I could imagine that as Noah grew, his natural skepticism could lead him to feel increasingly on the outside from our church community - not because it was excluding him (doubts and questions are welcomed), but because he had not made the decision to join it.

So Sunday night we put out the invitation: Do you want to believe in Jesus? Do you want to follow him? He said he'd sleep on it.

The next morning, out of the blue, he said, "I'm still thinking about it Mom, though I'm leaning toward Yes."

And Monday night (11/11/13), as he was getting ready for bed, unprompted by me, he said, "So Mom, I've decided Yes."

Honestly, I struggled at first with how to respond. He gets embarrassed when I ask him questions about it, and he prefers to pray memorized lines, which made it hard at first to tell what he really understands. But with time, he confirmed his grasp of the facts -- and his change of heart was immediate and obvious: he was smiling ear to ear and making statements like this ever since...

Me: Do you want to call someone and tell them what you've decided?
N: Yes!

N: When is the next church day?
Me: It's in 6 days, but we won't have communion this Sunday (I thought he might just be excited about the "snack").
N: That's OK, I just really want to go to church. I wish it was sooner.

N: Do you think Aaron wants to decide, too?
Me: I hope so! But he may be a little young to understand what we're talking about.
N: Yeah - maybe he'll be ready when he's 5.

Me: I was thinking maybe I could get you up a little earlier and we could read the Bible and pray together before school. What do you think?
N: Yeah! I really like reading the Bible.

First day of morning devotions (11/15/13): "Someday Heaven"

Me: Did you tell anyone at school what you decided last night?
N: No, it's too busy there. But I felt happy inside all day.

Me: We're going to have a special dinner tonight to celebrate with Gigi and Papa.
N: Who's going to pray?
Me: I don't know. Do you want to?
N: Yes! I really like praying.

N: Mom, can you read the Bible to me? (more than once)

And as we reminded him that...

You can talk to God anytime.
He is always with you.
He will never leave you.
He always loves you, no matter what you do.
He made you for a reason - you have a purpose.

He responded with mouth-open wonder. It is startling to see and hear my teen-like skeptic responding with such unabashed enthusiasm. And it has been a powerful reminder to me that God is clearly at work in my son's life.

I realize that Noah will have to revisit this decision as he gets older and better understands the options before him (as I did). I also expect his enthusiasm to ebb and flow (as mine does). But I am astonished and grateful to see that he is already beginning to find the hope and peace and security that Josh and I have found in Jesus.

Which means I really wanted to mark the occasion. If we had a party for his baptism, we were certainly going to have some sort of party to celebrate his decision to join the church. Playing on the metaphor in John 3, we had a "birthday party" the next night. Noah was surprised and delighted - but not more than we were, and are.

*In our church, you don't take communion until you've confirmed that you understand (and accept) what it means.