David's Reflections

Theological Reflections of a Seven-year Old Boy

A few weeks back, my seven-year old son, Jacob, wrote a song. It was a simple song, and yet, it captured the depth of a theological tenet--the Lordship of Christ demands everything from us, and He calls us to a change of allegiance from the core of our being to a life of submission and obedience to God. 

Here is the song: "Jesus."

Jesus is my Superhero That he can 
Be Two To Ze-ro Better Than Ma-ri-o So-nic And Me!
Then I will live with Je-sus. repeat 3times.

What blows me away is Jacob's understanding that Jesus is "better" than Mario and Sonic, both fictional characters from his most favorite video games. Mario is from Super Mario 63, and Sonic is from Sonic the Hedgehog. From his simple innocent 7-year old mind, he is learning the fact that Jesus demands our all and wants us to love Him over and above every relationship and commitment we have--even the ones that are fictional and imaginary.

Two Sundays ago, I spoke at an international church. I shared to a small group of 25-30 expatriates living here in Kaohsiung the challenges of missions work in Asia. As an introduction I shared Jacob's "Jesus" song to illustrate the simplicity and depth of Jesus call for cross-cultural ministry. Of course, I shared this song with a little parental pride. Everyone understood. I am one proud father. Wouldn't you?

through his eyes

I asked Jacob if I can bring my guitar for our devotions time. He nodded his head. So I went out of the room and brought in my guitar and started singing a song. He interrupted me and said that we should pray first, which is what we usually do. So we formed a circle with our hands and I led in prayer. After the prayer, Carmen led us in singing the song "How Great is Our God," a song by Chris Tomlin. She sang this song with matching action and gestures, the ones she learned from her last-year's First Grade class at Morrison Academy of Kaohsiung back in Taiwan. We joined her in praising our God.

Yesterday, we went to Evart Free Methodist Church in the morning and to Caldwell Free Methodist Church in the evening. We praise the Lord for the hospitality of Larry, Elaine, Mark, Cindy, Jerry, Eva, Chuck, Tim, Brenda, Gerald, Carol, Ken, Ruth, Brent, Nick, Jason, Paul, Maurice, Elaine, Wayne, Paul, and Jane. They were an encouragement to me.

At both churches, during the presentations, we taught the congregation the Chinese version of "God is so Good." I noticed Jacob's face lit up with delight as we were singing this Chinese song. Obviously, he was very happy that we were singing in Chinese. It was an encouraging time. I praised God knowing that we can worship Him using a language other than English.