Checking in with Pastor David

Kids--thank you for your questions. Questions are very important, and I want to encourage you to keep asking them.

I’ll try to answer a few of the ones that you’ve submitted so you can talk about it on Sunday.  I’ll do more of them later.

1.  Sam asks: “How long has the church been here?”
    If you are asking about our local Laurel United Methodist Church where we all learn and worship, it formally began on November 8-9th, 1909.  If you remember, what did we celebration last November? It was our Centennial-- 100 years of being in Laurel!

   If you are asking about the Christian church, we often think of the church as a spiritual community beginning at Pentecost not long after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension (Jesus rising from earth to heaven).  What important event happened at Pentecost? What did God give to us at Pentecost?

2.  “Is there anything about dinosaurs in the Bible? If there is, what verse?”  

   Good question! The word dinosaur is not in the Bible. Bible people seemed not to know about them, or the question did not concern them. Science tells us that these kind of creatures lived a long, long time before people were created. By the time humans were here, dinosaurs were extinct. So the people of the Bible would not have experienced them, just like we don’t experience them. Of course, we have their fossilized bones!

Look at the biblical creation story in Genesis, chapter 1. Read it carefully, especially what happens on the 5th and 6th days. Where do you think dinosaurs would fit in?  What day might that be? Were humans around then, or did God create them later?

3.There were several questions about pets:
   a. Victoria and Elizabeth asks, “Can we pray for our pets?”

Sure, you can. Plus, don’t you think that if we pray for our pets--as well as others we love--that we’ll do better with them, that we’ll love and care for them better?  I believe Jesus wants that from us.

   b. Andrew asks, “Is my cat in heaven?” And Nathan asks, “Is Bailey, my cat, in heaven with Callie (grandma’s cat)?

Good question, but a hard one especially for those who love our pets.
   --I believe that God has a special place in his heart for those who love and those whom are loved. Love is never lost to God. As far as whether pets go to heaven, we do not know for sure. The Bible never tells us about beloved pets and the future that God may have in store for them. Somebody has written that they believe that pets go to heaven to be with us because it would not be heaven without them. But the Bible and the Christian understanding down through history has been that heaven is intended for those who know, love, and choose to be with God and to do God’s will. Do you think that your pet can know God?  My final answer to this has to be, I do not know for sure. But God will do what is right and good.  We must trust God in this. God will do what is best. 

Thanks for your questions-keep them coming and I will post more answers next week!

Pastor David