who is god? is he a boy or a GIRL? what do they look like? ahh you said him so he must be a boy.....

[Mamazon]

yes my 7 year old is asking questions.
i am not at all religious and i just don't have the answers.
he asked who god was and i said no one knows really.
he asked if god was a boy or girl and i said i don't know. he asked what he lookedf like and i said i didn't know but that some people think he had a beard......ggrrr

im being tied in nots by a child and making myself sound really dumb.
part of me wants to send him to sunday school so he can ask these questions to a professional. ...sadly i don't think they'd take him.

he is driving me nuts with it though.
he is ASD so i can't just give hom a bible and let him read it, and if i read it to him then he would be constantly asking me questions.

what do you say?

God is just a presence, like Wind or Air... a name for a "thing" noone can see but believe is there

God made a son - Jesus, who looked like [insert sterotype pic] but no-one knows what God himself looks like

We call him, er him, because right at the beginning when the stories were first told, people wouldn't listen to girls - so God is called a man (but really he's just "nothing" because we can't see him - because he's like the wind), Jesus was a man too.

too complex? a starting point, perhaps

ooh your better at it than me. im so impressed at those answer's.

well, I was raised in a Christian family - that is the simplest, child-friendly way I could think of to say it all!

We live in a male centric society so all God figureheads are Male...

God is a word which also means Goddess, Great Spirit, Energy, Spirit... and a long list that goes on.

God is a stone, a lettuce leaf, a way of recognising energy and Life in everything.

I like what LewisFan said, God is a presence. An Energy. Bit like electricity... it runs through everything.

Could tell him God is like the telephone wires! There is the String Theory of course!

Don't completely rule out the idea of Sunday School. There is at least one child with ASD in the kids club at our local church and she/they cope fine. If there are any big, family-friendly churches near you, that have a reasonably lively children's program, it might be an option worth exploring.

Otherwise, I can't improve on Lewisfan's explanation!

My 6yo son has Asperger's and attends Sunday school, so like Smithagain says, don't rule it out. Under the Disability Discrimination Act, they have to at least try to accommodate him anyway.

Oxford diocese (in the C of E) have just this week published guidelines for churches on Aspergers and Autism, it really is an excellent document, and would help any prospective church, should you wish to take him there:

www.oxford.anglican.org/files/documents/autism_guidelines_pdf.pdf

Also, if its any help, I'm on the spectrum too, and I also have a "God obsession" , so can understand how it is for you AND him! Unfortunately I'm going on holiday from tomorrow, but if I can help, let me know and I'll pick up this thread when I get back...

My 4th DS asked (when he was about 4) who is Jesus' dad??? I said God?? His reply was 'Does Joseph know that?' 'Did Mary like God more?' It went on and on for weeks.

Also 'What is Jesus' last name' That bit baffled me. He wouldn't take the answer 'they didn't have last names then' so in the end we settled for Carpenter because thats the job his step-dad did!!!! Joseph being his step-dad was Toms idea not mine!!

LOL Shabster. DD1 professes to be a Christian but is only six so I'm not counting my chickens. She loves Jesus, but states that she's "not so sure about his Daddy"

My DS thought that Jesus' daddy was the vicar!

Come to think of it, I used to go to a church where the minister wore a long, white, monk-like habit and open toed sandals. He also had a beard and longish hair. I think he was aiming for some sort of semi-monastic hippy effect.

I'm not sure if he realised just how many of the Junior Church members thought he was Jesus.

Sorry, Mamazon - going off at a tangent here. Let us know if your DS has any more awkward questions we can help with, or if you decide how else to help him.

Was at a Hohepa last week. Hohepa is a Rudolf Steiner based organisation here in New Zealand.

www.hohepa.com/ check out the Hohepa School www.hohepa.com/hawkes-bay-hohepa-school.php

This organisation shows us how touch and feel are important, eurythmy, art and movement therapies.

These are all Insights to show your Son how to Feel God. What God looks like is not important. For God is not a boy or Girl... God is not human.

Meditation and Creative visuals of sensory activities will introduce Spirit and teach your Son Who is "God"

Sit him in the Garden, find some Worms. The Worms are Powerful Teachers. If we did not have Worms on Earth, Human Life would cease to Exist!!

Who God looks like will come to him as he learns how to feel what God - Spirit is in movement and Life

Your son has an active Mind, he wants to process everything in theory... provide him with the Balance of Practise. Hands on activities that Balance his overactive mind... Not with Books, with his hands, that teach him and give him messages of Life, his life, the life of Everything. His Spirit will be Enlivened in response.