I have often felt that the first step in teaching religion is unteaching. Many of us were taught about God as children, and then no more. So, of course, our understanding of God is either a child’s understanding or no understanding at all. As they age, many people reject the whole of religion, because there is no way a person educated beyond childhood in every other area of life can believe what they believed about God when they were a child, but they have nothing with which to replace it.

So let’s start with our images of God. Here’s mine:

   

  

FATHER LOVER CREATOR

SON BELOVED WORD OF LOVE MADE FLESH

SPIRIT OF LOVE THE ONGOING, EVER MOVING RELATIONSHIP

 The Father loves the Son. The Son is Love returning Love, guided by the Spirit of Love. Perpetual motion. Always creating, always loving. We are the result of that relationship. We come from it, we live in it and we return to it. All is one.

That image probably won’t work for you. What is the image that would? That is the starting point for your adult faith.