Who made God?

Around a year ago Jemima (now 3.5yrs old) wanted to know where things were made.  She pointed at things around the room, and more often than not my answer was "China".  She then pointed at her little sister, and wondered if she was made in China too.  Now Jemima keeps asking me who made God.  Not the easiest question for a Christian to answer.  I wonder if it is tough for any monotheistic religion.  I generally say "I don't know, God just is."  Not the most satisfactory answer, but the best I can do just now in the midst of putting away washing, cleaning and the general busyness of domestic life.  Jemima responded by asking if perhaps there was another god, who was in everyone's hearts too.  This god might have made the other one. This morning Jemima again asked me if there were two gods.  Fascinating questions from a three year old, and interesting that she was still thinking about it a day later.

So who did make God?  And how on earth do you explain this to a little girl?  The simplest response is that God just always was, is and has been.  This argument is presented here.  Attempts to answer this question seem to be wrapped up in philosophical understandings about time, logical processes of elimination of less probable answers, and a myriad of other approaches.  I am not really sure what to think.  At the moment I am probably quite happy to say simply to myself and to Jemima "I don't know." I am ok with a little mystery.

Splash

Splash
Originally uploaded by nomadic eyes

This photo represents the best of about 150 attempts today to take an even semi-decent photo of water splashing. It is a learning shot, and I feel as though the red in the background is a bit distracting. However, to take it out would leave the foreground hints of red seem misplaced. It was great fun and I look forward to getting better at this kind of photography.

Whales, lions and the Messiah

Scott has raised some interesting ideas on his blog concerning narratives and the bible.  Scott commented on the Story Book Bible, a retelling of the popular stories of the bible targeted at children aged 4+.  I bought this book for its illustrations, clear story telling that reads as though it was meant to be read out loud to children.  It is descriptive and poetic, and yes, as Scott points out, does tend to weave in the story of Jesus throughout the old testament tales.  But is this a bad thing?  I do believe that OT stories should be read as stand alone books.  But then they should be read as part of the bigger picture of the OT, and they should be read in the light of the NT.  And they should be read for their literary style.  It is only as we grapple with the books, stories, documentaries, poems and dramas that make up the OT in this varied way that we will begin to tap into all that they have to offer.  I do believe that the Bible books are linked in some way.  If they do not each contribute to the whole in some way, then why are they included?  That of course raises a whole other body of questioning that I don't have time or energy to ponder right now.  If we believe in the meta narrative of God who desires relationship with humanity, then the journey through the old testament from the turbulent relationship between God and Israel through to the remarkable life of Jesus  gives us a glimpse into how that is played out in the human and God story.  So for me, explaining this a little in the Story book bible is helpful for kids to see that the stories are more than just about whales and lions, boats and giants.

Red flowers

Red flowers
Originally uploaded by nomadic eyes

rainy days

rainy days
Originally uploaded by nomadic eyes

I love reflections.

Ballgown

ballgown
Originally uploaded by nomadic eyes

This is not much of a photo, and I was bitterly disappointed to find that my droplet of water was blurred. However, I have uploaded it because reminds me of the soft flowing fabric folds of a ballgown. This was taken at Wilsons Prom during my first precious childfree hour with my new macro lens. It reminds me I have much to learn, and that there is now a whole new world of photgraphic possibilities open to me.

His name is Fatao

In my last post I began documenting my thoughts about shopping ethically.  I mentioned that I choose fair trade products where possible.  I get to purchase my (usually) luxury items relatively free of guilt.  I may spend more, but feel justified in doing so as I trust the logo means what it says - that the raw producers have been paid fairly for their goods.  However, next Monday 's episode of Four Corners on the  ABC is called "Chocolate - the bitter truth".  Unfortunately the bitter truth is about Fair Trade, and difficulties within its implementation.  You can read more about it here.

The title comes from the blurb introducing the episode - Fatao is a twelve year old boy who works twelve hours per day without pay to supply cocoa for the chocolate we eat.

 ...BBC reporter Paul Kenyon went undercover trying to trace the beans that went into Fairtrade products. What he found will shock many chocolate lovers. In a number of locations he found the cocoa bean suppliers approved by the Fairtrade initiative did in fact use child labour. Some were exposed by a Fairtrade audit, others were exposed by the BBC investigation.

This disturbs me greatly.  Clearly the Fair Trade scheme is not working as it should, and requires far tighter monitoring and policing.  I will be interested to see what is revealed in the documentary.  And what can we do?  Buying Fair Trade items is a start, but clearly not enough.  It is easy to say it is primarily the issue of traders, sellers, corporations.  But ultimately it is our money that they are after.