What do you tell your children?

If you get our newsletter, you've seen that a friend brought us a real problem.  A little girl in her congregation wants to know why God is a "He," and what it means for her.  I'm struggling to find words to answer.  I know what I don't think or feel - God is not a "He," God is beyond gender - but that's hard for an 8-year-old to take in, I think.  And what does it mean for us that God is beyond gender, if we are made in God's image?

I'm starting to read Grace Jantzen's Becoming Divine, because a friend recommended it and it looks interesting.  Jantzen was a philosopher of religion who examined the ways that religion, and the study of religion, were gendered in Western culture.  She links the masculinization of religion to the focus on death, rather than natality or birth, but that is not the most radical aspect of her work.  She argues that the "fundamental task of the philosophy of religion" is not formulating correct statements about God, but is "becoming divine" - discovering and activating all our potential, all that we are given, "to refuse to allow parts of ourselves to shrivel and die that have the potential for growth and fulfillment."

I don't know yet where this will take me, but I know it's important.  I can critique existing paradigms and methods, but God isn't in the critique.  The future isn't in the critique.  The future, the God who does something new, is in our creative imaginations.  God is in our desire to become divine, to know God not as Other but as our Ground and Source.

How do I say that to an 8-year-old?  I don't know.  It takes a village.  If you know of resources, or can imagine, or have a story to tell, please let me know!  Write me at companionsma@gmail.com.  And pray for all the children of the world, that they may be given a chance to know themselves beloved children of God.