Paradox: A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement that when investigated is actually true

If Christ-centered parents don’t acknowledge (early on in their kids’ lives) that the truths of Christianity often contain paradox, they will forever be trying to “explain” and “define” a God who can’t be completely explained or defined in human terms. The Bible is filled with paradox!
To live, die.
To gain, lose.
To find, lose.
To receive, give.
To be brought high, get low.
To become rich, become poor.
To become strong, become weak.
And then that radical paradox for us as parents … Honor your parents, but hate them.

If we do not readily admit that the “seeming” contradictions of the bible do exist, we lose credibility. And if we try to explain them all, we lose consistency. There comes a time to say to our kids that we actually don’t grasp everything in our heads that we truly believe with all of our hearts. We use words, but even then they fall short of being concrete or solid. Early on our kids wonder how Someone can exist forever. And has already existed forever. We say to them … He was. He is. He is to come. And I believe that with everything in me. But I certainly don’t get it – in my head!

The Bible says that we are saved by grace through faith. And that faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. To most of us, hope is a wish for something to happen. God’s kind of hope is an assurance that something will happen … something that we can’t see yet. So, faith is actually seeing without seeing. A paradox of epic proportion!

And as parents who desire to pass this kind of faith on to our kids – the kind that sees when there is nothing to see – we must be willing to admit that there aren’t “answers” to every question they will have. But there is AN ANSWER … in a Person. While it is certainly not wrong (it’s even good) to dialogue about the difficult themes and teachings of scripture, if we fail to communicate that the real answer to every spiritual question is “I AM”, even if that doesn’t make sense, then we have failed to communicate the essence of Christianity.
The Sovereign of the universe says about Himself:
Indeed, My plans are not like your plans, and My deeds are not like your deeds, for just as the sky is higher than the earth, so My deeds are superior to your deeds and My plans superior to your plans.
Truly I am God, I have no peer; I am God, and there is none like me.

Some of the Bible’s truths are going to be hard for our kids to grasp. But when we have no concrete answers to give, we are able to share with them what we have personally discovered about our Abba: When you call out to Him and come to Him in prayer, He will hear your prayers. When you seek Him in prayer and worship, you will find Him available … If you seek Him with all your heart and soul, He will make Himself known to you. (Jer 29)