Tell me about Jesus daddy!

We’re in the kitchen and out of the blue you say “daddy, tell me about Jesus”.

You had previously asked me about god which isn’t that difficult for me, but Jesus… that’s a tough one. You’re asking these questions because Maw Maw is taking you to church when she has you on Sunday morning and you’re being exposed to the concepts. I consider this a good thing as it’s a doorway into the subject. You say things like “church is where you learn about god, right daddy?”. That’s true Evelyn, but it’s not the only place you learn about god. The world you live in is the place where you learn about god. You only need to look.

I’ve always had a relationship with god and like the child that I am I’ve both loved and hated this relationship. As part of my “rebirth” so to speak after you were born I spent a great deal of time reading, studying and meditating on god and spirituality. Like the concept of death, god is something I expect you to embrace and explore early. I want to encourage and stimulate it. What I DON’T want is for you to be indoctrinated into a certain way of thinking about it. The point at which you believe somebody else has the answer, is the point at which you are cut off from the truth. You must explore and find the answer for yourself. I consider it my job to keep you seeking and not let you settle on an answer until you are old enough to decide for yourself. And even then, my hope is that you will continue to seek for the rest of your life.

So far my approach has been to say things that don’t contradict what you’re learning but modify or expand on how they can be interpreted. For example, you said to me “god is up in the sky, right daddy?”. I said “of course”, but also that god is everywhere. Most importantly, god is in you, in your heart. God is the animating source that brings you life. YOU are an expression of god. There is no god “out there” looking down and making decisions about this world or any other. YOU are the eyes of god. YOU are gods choices. God acts through YOU. That’s why it’s so important that you take responsibility for your actions. YOU act on behalf of god.

Tell me about Jesus daddy.

What about him Evelyn?

Why did they kill him?

Woah. That’s heavy duty. Because Jesus was a change agent Evelyn. He was an enlightened being. He saw the corruption and the greed of the established order, and the folly in the lives of the people around him. He saw that people had lost their connection to god and he demanded change. Established orders of power don’t like change. They saw him as a pariah threatening their power structure. So they tortured and killed him to make a point. But what he said was true, the system for worshiping god had become about “itself”, about benefiting the “system” of worship, and not about helping people achieve salvation or enlightenment, but the people he touched saw the light (truth) through him and so continued to rally behind his words. He became a martyr.

That is what I can say about Jesus Evelyn. He was a man that had valuable things to say for a person seeking to know god, to know their true selves. A man that held strong in his conviction even in the face of death. That is all you should accept at this point. In the coming weeks I will find things he said that you should know and through your interest in him I will help you grow.