In the car yesterday Toby, who is getting more and more inquisitive these days, asked “Dad, why can’t you see God?”. I think I had lots of answers for him (pro-religion mostly and a few unneccessarily snarky ones too) but nothing came to mind which would be appropriate for a four year old, so I suggested that Emma would be a better person to talk about it.
She started out with “just because you can’t see God doesn’t mean that God isn’t there” which didn’t seem to get very far, then said “When people love each other, God is there” which maybe made some progress but not much. So she gave an example: “When mummy and daddy hug you do you feel all loved – maybe God is part of that. Do you feel like that?” Toby pretty much shrugged his shoulders at that one, so there was nothing for it but for Emma to say “Um, because God is transcendent?” Only one response from Toby was appropriate, and he hit it right on the head: “Mummy, why does the Pink Panther like everything to be pink?”