One morning as we were pulling out of our neighborhood the boys caught a glimpse of something that I saw with my eyes, but wasn't taking the time to appreciate...it was the sun rays pushing through the clouds and penetrating the trees around us. They were perfect beams of light through the haze of the day. The boys began to imagine what those beams of light meant. I asked them, "Who made the sun and its beams?" They responded accordingly, "God!" After that we began a conversation about those perfect spotlights from heaven being God coming down to earth. Now, as you know, any good boy will interpret this in their own way. They then began to imagine and play in the backseat that God was coming after them. I engaged them in a conversation about what they meant by God coming after them and personally I didn't like the image of God being portrayed. It was the same playful imaginative style they have when pretending to be ninjas, cowboys, soldiers, wrestlers, or cops and robbers. The style was that God was the adversary. God was the opponent. The boys were having fun and hunching over trying to hide from the angry God coming to get them. I then said, "How do you know He is coming after you to get you?", "What if God is running to you to love you and embrace you?" They hadn't really thought about this before. Their play changed for the next minute or two on our ride to school. Thinking through imaginatively what it meant for God to want them so much that He was coming through the most beautiful sunbeams to pick them up, hold them, and love on them. As we approached the school and they were leaving the car I simply said to them, "Don't forget, God is running to you today!" I hope that they felt that loving presence all day.
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