Once upon a time, a long time ago, in a far away land …

Every night as my granddaughter and I go to bed, she asks for a bedtime story. Well, at least one. And usually as many as I allow or until she simply goes to sleep. She gets all kinds of bedtime stories. Some are traditional fairy tales, Cinderella, Snow White, etc. Some are simply tales that I make up. Some are stories from my life – which I will always end with the line “and this is a true story about my life.” And some are Bible stories – which I will always end with the line “and this is a true story from the Bible.”

So she is learning about my life, and about God. And Mayme wants you to know that she believes in Jesus. She enjoys the story of creation, but wrestles with questions such as, “Just how did God make each flower so beautiful and different?” Or “When he made man from the dust of the ground was it like he sat down with playdo and shaped him? What do God’s fingers look like that he could do that?” The Bible doesn’t offer all the details. And, of course, Maymezhan wants all the details, in order, exact. Sometimes stories don’t particularly help her go to sleep.

So how do you answer those questions?

“Are all the stories in the Bible really true?” she asks. “My friend Valeria says that some of it is just like fairy tales so that the Bible is more interesting, like Jesus walking on the water. She says no one could walk on the water.”

“So Mayme, what do you think?” I ask her. “You know the story about Jesus walking on the water and Peter joining him on the water, what do you think?”

“It must be true, since Jesus is God and can do anything he wants. I haven’t walked on water yet, Kazakhstan doesn’t have much water. Valeria says she believes in God, just not the Bible. So how can I tell her it is true so that she listens? Especially when I don’t have all the answers?”

So how do you answer those questions?