Dr. Dallas Willard says we live in a god-bathed world.
That phrase "god-bathed world" has stuck with me. It is my job to fill my children's' world with the presence of god. PBS Kids isn't going to tell my children they live in a god-bathed world. Public school isn't going to either. Church only has my kids for 60 hours per year.
But I go with my kids some 3,000 hours per year. I am their god-given tour guide. What we need for this job is imagination more than lots of information. I've never failed to look at a work of art in a gallery and not think, "I wonder what motivated the artist... I wonder what I am supposed to see or understand... what does this art tell me about the artist?" Likewise, we see our world around us and it is not just a pile of pop art - pretty colors and shapes. It is there as pure beauty and fun, exhilaration, speed, light - and it all points to the Artist.
Willard: "We pay a lot of money to get a tank wit ha few tropical fish in it and never tire of looking at their brilliant iridescence and marvelous forms and movements. But God has seas full of them, which he constantly enjoys." (The Divine Conspiracy, p63)
We are to wash our child's world in god. Beyond nature, we interpret the evening news, the latest disaster on the front page of the newspaper, advertisements during a sports event - everything is the gift of a moment to see god. Our job is to develop the skill of "noticing," to interpret. Begin to practice, practice, practice. Moreover, you will begin to live in a god-bathed world yourself. When your child asks you, "What's that picture about on the front page of the newspaper?" and you have to explain war, hatred, death, greed, power, politics - yeah! it is daunting. Don't cave in to Barney the purple dinosaur's world view: "well, some people just are mean and bad." No! Now is the moment to speak of justice, and role of Jesus, our followership, a god who hates greed and revenge, forgiveness and reconciliation. Move into it. This is the heavy side of our god-bathed world. No one else will do this for your child - no one. It is you, it is really just you.