Explaining 'God' to a 3-Year-Old

It was bound to come up sooner or later. As we were driving to church this morning, my three-year-old daughter asked,

"Daddy, why do we have to go to church every Sunday?"

"Well, sweetie," I replied, "we need to go and thank God for all of the good things He has given us."

"Oh," she said, "has He been to our house?"

I could see where she was going. How ELSE would He give us those gifts if He hadn't been over, right?

"No," I replied, "well, actually yes. He's always at our house. God is everywhere, all at the same time."

She thought about this for a second.

"Well, how come we can't SEE God? How do we KNOW he's there?", she asked.

Damn good question. Three-year-olds do not do well with 'gray areas'.

"Well, we just know.", I said.

My 'cop out' detector then went off and I realized that she deserved a better answer.

"God is kind of invisible. We can't see Him, but He's everywhere. He gave us you and your sisters, and he gave you a good set of parents (well, most of the time anyway)."

"Oh," she replied, "well, do we have to give them back when we're done with them?"

"Give what back?", I asked.

"The GIFTS that He gave us," she said.

'Silly Daddy'...she must have been thinking.

"Oh, no, of course not," I said, "He just wants us to use our gifts and help other people with them."

Tick-tick-tick-tick...

"Oh.....OK, Daddy." she said.

Whew. Made it. It's Miller Time!

see also...

801 Questions Kids Ask about God