Larry Libby - Who Made God?: And Other Things We Wonder about

For my almost-grown children,
Matt & Melissa.
Thanks for being such an encouragement
to your Dad and Mom.

Larry Libby

To Sherrie Schroeder and the staff at Most Holy Trinity
School. Your lives of faith and dedication to your
profession have enriched our childrens lives in ways
impossible to measure. Thank you.

Corbert Gauthier

I magine you make up a word that no one in the whole wide world has ever said or even thought. One day you write your word on a piece of paper, and a pesky little neighbor kid picks up the paper, learns your word, and starts blabbing it all over the place. Before long, everyone starts using it. Your word wouldnt be so special anymore, would it? Thats a little like how I feel when I say, God is awesome.

Awesome used to be a strong word, but it doesnt mean anything special anymore. One person says, I had an awesome hamburger for lunch. Another says, I wore my awesome sneakers to school.

But awesome is still a special word when we use it to describe God. It means full of awe. Its the feeling we get when we see something or someone bigger, brighter, greater, deeper, higher, stronger, or finer than anything or anyone weve ever seen before. The Bible says that God is the great, mighty and awesome God (Nehemiah 9:32 NIV).

We have many questions about God. Its good to ask questions. So lets ask some questions and see what we can learn about him.

T he answer is that no one made God. God, you see, wasnt made. Everything else had a beginning, including you, but it was different for God. He didnt begin. He always has been. And always will be. Now you probably have even more questions swirling around in your head.

Imagine this. Early one morning, you open your eyes and you can smell pancakes and bacon sizzling in the kitchen. The first thing you notice is your mom sitting on your bed and looking down at you with love in her eyes.

How long have you been sitting here? you ask. How did you know when I was going to wake up?

You could go on asking her questions and more questions. Or you could just forget the questions, give her a big hug, and tumble out of bed to get a steaming plate of pancakes and maple syrup.

You could go on asking questions and more questions about God too. But finally you have to say, Its all right if I dont understand everything about him. God just wants us to believe him, love him, obey him, and enjoy him, even if we dont have all the answers. He wants us to open our eyes every morning with thanks and gladness that a big, powerful God loves us very much.

God will be with us every morning, every night, and always.

W hen I was very little and my family would go to church, my parents would take me to the nursery, kiss me, and hand me to Mrs. Eickmeyer. Then they would tell me to learn all I could about God.

I liked Mrs. Eickmeyer very much. She had a big, wooden box full of toys. She told me stories about Jesus and gave me graham crackers. We had a great time. The only problem was, for years after that, I always thought that God looked like her. How was I supposed to know that Mrs. Eickmeyer wasnt God ?

Truth is, God the Father is invisible. He is a spirit. So God sent us Jesus, his Sonso we would know what he is like. And Jesus is all anyone needed to learn about God. The more we know and love Jesus, the more we know and love God.

Want to know something else? The more you and I love and obey Jesus, the more we begin to look like him! And the more we begin to be like God. Im not kidding. I think thats the way it was with Mrs. Eickmeyer. Maybe God didnt look very much like her, but to me, she looked a lot like God.

T he more we think about how BIG God is, the more our poor heads feel dizzy. How can anyone be so great, so strong, so wise?

It took a big God to make the big oceans, big mountains, big rivers, and big heat-shimmery deserts. It took a big God to make so many stars that we cant count them.

It took a big, wise God to make all of the tiny things too. Things like perfect snowflakes with no two alike. Flowers so small you have to lie on your stomach to look at them. Shiny fish that play tag in the oceans and all the beautiful shells on the beach.

There are lots of things we dont understand about God. Thats all right. We can still praise him for what we do understand. Thats what the prophet Jeremiah did. He wrote: Lord and King, you have reached out your great and powerful arm. You have made the heavens and the earth. Nothing is too hard for you (Jeremiah 32:17).

Praise God right now. Hes not too big to bend down and listen to every word!

O ne afternoon, Nathanael was resting under a fig tree. Nathanaels friend Philip came hurrying down the road. When he saw Nathanael, he came over to him. Philip was excited and started talking right away.

We have found the One that Moses wrote about, he said. His name is Jesus! Come and see. So Nathanael got up and followed Philip.

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, he said, He is a true Israelite. There is nothing false in him.

How do you know me? Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, I saw you while you were still under the fig tree.

Nathanael was excited! He knew Jesus had been thinking about him as he sat under that tree!

God thinks about YOU too. He keeps his eye on you all day and all night long. He sees when you laugh or when tears fall from your eyes. When you think about him, he is already thinking about you.

And every time you say a prayer to God, he will always say, How good to hear your voice! Im so glad you thought about me, because I was just thinking about you.

S ometimes God does speak out loud to people. Do you remember the story about young Samuel?