Parenting Tips from God the Father...

June 10, 2012

Baptism of Maggie Jonas
Pentecost 2, Proper 5, Year B
Genesis 3:8-15

Last week on Trinity Sunday, John spoke about the three ways of thinking about and being in relationship with God.  This morning’s story from Genesis can be easily placed into the “God the Father” category.  Here we see God as Creator of the world and humankind and as Parent, trying to guard and guide his progeny, Adam and Eve.   As we prepare to baptize little Maggie Jonas this morning into the Body of Christ, it seems like the perfect time to see what kind of parenting tips we can pick up from God who is dealing with his own fairly incalcitrant children.

1. Sometimes the real meaning of a story is more important than its historicity.

The stories of the seven days of creation and Adam and Eve’s beginnings cause great angst for well-meaning literalists who want to know exactly when these two people lived and how our earth came into being.  But that is not what these stories from Genesis are intended to be.  This morning’s story of God confronting Adam and Eve isn’t about history, or even, I would argue, the origins of sin.  This is really a story about us, and about our relationship with God and with each other.  This story never happened, and yet it happens every day.

So when Maggie comes home from school someday with a story you know just cannot be true, think about the truth that just might lie underneath.

2.  No child is perfect.

The great debate about nature versus nurture has been raging since time immemorial but here we get the answer – neither one guarantees anything.  Here we have the perfect loving and nurturing parent, the idyllic surroundings, the perfect genetic makeup, and yet even here, the children lie and steal and fight and manipulate.

In other words, Bill and Lauren, since even God failed in this parenting business, don’t take it so hard when things don’t always turn out the way you hope.

3.  You can’t protect your child from everything.

God set up this perfect spot for his children – beautiful and interesting, with everything they needed to survive and be happy.  God tried hard to protect Adam and Eve’s innocence, to save them from being confronted with sin and evil, by creating boundaries and restrictions.  But at the end of the day, even God could not protect his children from temptation, and couldn’t guard them every minute to ensure they made only good decisions.  But maybe in some way that was for the best.  Maybe in order to flourish and grow, Adam and Eve needed to leave the sameness and protection of the garden.  Maybe in order to deepen their relationship with God, they needed to experience forgiveness and grace and redemption.

So when Maggie wants to climb that tree or go to that party or dye her hair, try to remember that you only have so much control.  And that every experience is an opportunity for growth.

4.  Make sure your kids know you will always be there for them.

Poor God had done nothing but give and give to Adam and Eve.  And yet when they hear him coming, they run and hide.  They’re ashamed and afraid (of what they’d done, of what God would think, of how it might change their relationship) and they don’t know what to do with those emotions.  But God has obviously been loving and trustworthy enough that Adam and Eve do come out eventually and expose themselves to God.

It’s hard to imagine when your children are young and think you are the best thing ever, but there will come a time when Maggie wants nothing to do with you.  But take heart, it won’t last forever.  Let her know that you are always there to love and support her and she’ll come out from behind the trees and show herself eventually.

5. Rather than getting sucked into the blame game, try to use it for good.

When Adam and Eve finally do emerge, they have trouble taking responsibility for what they’ve done.  Adam plays the innocent and blames Eve, Eve plays the victim and blames the serpent.  But God sees through all of their excuses and gets to the bottom of the incident, which is, ultimately, Adam and Eve’s attempt to find contentment and self-importance and power apart from God.  God understands their shared responsibility for the incident and instead of allowing them to turn too far against God (or against one another), God finds a way to force them to work together as they forge their way in the new world East of Eden.

Maggie and Mac will inevitably fight and blame each other, but look for ways to turn sibling rivalry into opportunities to forge a closer relationship between them.

6. Cultivate a garden.

The garden of Eden in our story this morning was the place where God walked at the time of the evening breeze, the place where God was in face-to-face relationship with Adam and Eve.  I know I said earlier that this story isn’t meant to be historically true, and yet it is so incredibly True (with a big T).  It seems quaint and anthropomorphic to depict God as crunching through the undergrowth, and yet that is so often where we can find God if we are looking – right in the midst of our lives, in the small and everyday places and events and people as well as in the glorious and splendid.  We still have a Eternal and Ever-loving Parent that we can turn to – one that searches for us, longs for us and loves us.   

            And so that’s my last and best piece of parental advice for Maggie’s family gleaned from God-as-Parent in our story this morning.  Grow a garden for her.  Not a garden of flowers and bushes, but a space of peace and faith, comfort and hope.  A place where she can grow in the knowledge of God-the-Parent who is with her, crunching in the leaves, carrying her through her challenges, abiding in her relationships.  Amen.