The Real Thing...

Earlier this evening my nine year old asked me, "Mom, how do I know that God is real?  Sometimes I ask Him to move something, like a pencil, to prove that He is real and it doesn't happen....so how do I know God is real?"

(How I know God is real is that I was able to answer my son without so much as a thought...my answer came quickly and fluently)...

"That is what Faith is Jack...Faith is believing in something without seeing it with your eyes.  We also have the stories in the Bible, the scripture tells us that God is real."

And then I was quiet for a moment...

I looked in my son's eyes and I took his hands in mine and I explained further...

"Our family knows that God is real because he has blessed us with real life change over the past year.  Mommy's eyes and heart were opened to Christ's love and forgiveness through the good people that God placed in my path.  Jack, when I accepted Jesus into my heart, our entire family and our way of life was changed.  Remember when you told me that you 'like our life now'...Daddy and mommy love each other more than we have ever loved one another.  Mommy is home now, you and Benjamin and Hayden and Daddy are my priority.  We pray together, we sing together, we experience life with friends that love us and have the same life goals as we do, we go to church together....that is God, Jack.  That is God placing his hand on our family.  So, the Dudenhoeffer's know without a doubt that God is real"

Silence....

And then...

A small squeeze of my hand from the tiny hand I held...

"Remember when you told me that when someone squeezes your hand it means they love you?"

I replied, "Yes."

Now Jack looked into my eyes, his hand still inside mine, and he gave me another squeeze....

"I love you, mom.  And I love God."

Just another reason for me to know that God IS real.