"This is God"

I help teach the Sunday School at our little church, once or twice a month, and one of the other church members does the other weeks. A few weeks ago, we were doing a lesson on the nature of God (we are starting with Genesis and working from there) and he held up a little picture of a snowman and was talking about it. I wasn't paying close attention, since Benjamin was acting up for the upteenth time and I was busy disciplining him, but Toby told me later that the teacher had said that the snowman was God. I said he must be mistaken, and that the teacher was really talking about the verse that was pasted on the picture.

This week, Toby wore his Christmas socks (with snowmen) at home one day and our guard told him that he had ghosts (spirits) on his socks. After Toby told me this, something clicked in my brain and I said "oh no!". Because it occurred to me that the Sunday School teacher had indeed told the children that the snowman was God. God is a spirit, right?

Now, an American will burst into giggles at this kind of a mixup. Hillarious, isn't it? We did indeed have a laugh, but after we finished we felt rather sober. Because there are all kinds of wierd stories circulating about all kinds of wierd things (for example, rumors circulate about various things that foreigners do to gain power or money). Obviously, at some point someone saw a snowman depicted in a photo and had some ideas about it, and those ideas have spread to the general population. People here have no concept of snow, and why would they? It is a completely foreign concept. So, this white blobby thing that looks vaguely human would indeed be taken for a spirit. Makes me really wonder about the few Christmas decorations that are put up in town by unknowing foreigners! I'll have to watch this year to see if any snowmen go up. Gives a new meaning to the phrase "Spirit of Christmas past".

Anyway, I determined that I must speak to my colleague about it and after we discussed it he did indeed say that he thought this was a spirit and he was trying to explain to the children how God is a spirit. Ok, I don't have a huge problem with that. However, we do have to erase the snowman image from their minds, because they are going to see it occasionally and they mustn't believe that is an image of God. I'll have to sort that one out, perhaps by providing some other kind of picture for them to look at, like a bright light or something. Meanwhile, we just shake our heads! - Cami