Did God Create the Universe?
A Bilingual Devotional for Kids with Big Questions
Using resources from science, scripture, and ancient wisdom
“Where does God live?” Have you ever felt like a deer in headlights when your child asked a tough question? Here is a resource to help you have meaningful conversations about faith, science, life, and suffering. This devotional book for children is unique because it is authored by a mainline protestant pastor and theologian, originally trained as a chemist. These forty reflections integrate science, faith, and ancient wisdom to inspire children to focus on the wonder and mystery behind everyday life.
PRINTED VERSION
Price: $9.99
KINDLE
Price: $5.99
This book can be used at home to initiate meaningful conversations with your child. It is useful as an Advent or Lenten devotional series, a resource for Sunday School, or a source of ideas for children’s sermons or other engaging programming.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to children and youth ministries in the Caribbean Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Reader Reviews
“This devotional tackles difficult theological questions in a sophisticated yet accessible way. It fundamentally respects children—society’s natural philosophers—whose questions about God and the universe deserve thoughtful answers. ”
“My husband and I grew up in families with different religions (Catholic and Jewish). Becoming parents, we decided to focus on cultivating the values and foundations we share; and educate them on a mixture of customs and traditions from both families. In that sense, the conversations with the kids about God and faith has always been a challenge. When I read this book, I knew immediately that I had found in the stories, a tool in which I could communicate with my children about the existence of God. It’s a great opportunity for families like ours, who are looking for conversation about values and foundations that we want to instill in our children without getting too much into religion, to more traditional families that will enjoy the reading of the prayers as much as the stories that explain them. ”
Weaving together scientific facts with inspiring stories, these reflections offer helpful perspectives to learn to see God’s presence in potentially awkward and inevitable topics (such as evolution vs. creation, the big bang, suffering, divorce, hell, and more). While the language is geared towards children approximately 8 to 12 years old, parents and caregivers of all ages will appreciate this book as a resource to navigate modern day faith. The black and white illustrations by artist Régine Daniels are crisp and appealing to older children.
Excerpts From the Book
“The word Trinity means “three” and it refers to the fact that Christians believe that God is three persons but just one God. This isn’t weird math. It’s just a way of making sense of the way God is so vast and as distant as the farthest stars in the galaxy and yet also very near to each one of us and to the whole world.”
“It is amazing that God has given us the gift of science to learn how She made the universe, and the gift of faith to learn why She did. We are made by God, through evolution, for love.”
“All emotions are important. To be human is to feel emotions. Some people learn to use their strong emotions to create beautiful things like songs, poems, paintings, plays, and movies.”
“God is also present in the hearts of those suffering, whispering hope and courage so that they can endure and prevail.”
“Imagination is how God whispers to us the new things that God wants to bring into being.”
Rev. Carmelo Santos, PhD
Carmelo is a pastor, parent, professor, and a social justice activist. Originally trained as a chemist, he went to seminary to explore how God is at work in the midst of atoms and molecules. He has also received training in neuroscience and teaches the popular course “God & the Brain” at Georgetown University. He has over a decade of experience as a pastor with multicultural and bilingual congregations in the Lutheran church (ELCA).
