God is ________, Just Like Me!

What do we know about God? The answer is a LOT of things, from a LOT of different stories, which are at times repetitive, comforting, contradictory, and upsetting. Over the past week, we examined half a dozen stories from Jewish text and pulled out what God is doing, how God is treating Bnei Yisrael (the Jewish people), and what we can learn about God from those actions. Then we filled in the gaps with everything we know about God that didn’t come up from one of those stories. Here’s what that looked like (these words and ideas are 100% produced by your insightful children!):

On our last day of Snacktime Learning for this week, every kid looked at this chart and wrote down for themselves about 10 words that describe who God is, according to them, on that day. Then, with all the ways we can describe God in mind, we talked about relationship.

What does Bnei Yisrael want from their relationship with God?

• For God to protect them.
• For God to take care of them.
• For God to give them something to look up to and aspire to be.

What does God want from God’s relationship with Bnei Yisrael?

• For them to worship God.
• For them to love God.
• For them to be a family for God.
• For them to believe that God is sort of half-real, half-mysterious.

What do I want from my relationship with God?

• Maybe to help me occasionally when things are really hard.
• Nothing—I can take care of myself.
• Help influencing my mom to give me whatever I want to eat!

We also brought the conversation back to how we all have some godliness, some tzelem elohim, inside each of us. I’ll leave you with the ideas just one kindergartener had about what that tzelem elohim might look like:

• We can be brave, kind, and creative.
• We can be generous and giving.
• We can help each other find our way when we’re lost.