The Universe. And More.

Madeleine has come to the age-old, epic question of what existed before there was existence.  Specifically, she wanted to know how, if God created everything, but God wasn't ever born, He just always existed, how did God even come to be?  This reminds me so much of my struggles to wrap my head around the idea of what could have been going on before the universe was created.  I simply cannot grasp the concept of "nothingness."  How can there be nothing?  Isn't there always some sort of space?  How can there literally be nothing of any dimension or existence?

Anyway, I tried to explain to Madeleine that this whole thing is a mystery to all of us.



ME: Well, the thing it, Madeleine, not even scientists truly understand WHAT was there before the universe.  It's a mystery to everyone what it was like before anything was created.
MADELEINE: Yeah, and it was just all BLACK and NOTHING and invisible GOD.
ME: Yes, right.
MADELEINE: And God I picture like a CLOUD.
ME: Like a cloud?
MADELEINE: Yeah.  And whenever you say "God has powers," I imagine a yellowish-orangish lightning bolt that's 2-D.


Wow.  That's a very specific and interesting image.  I wonder why the lightning bolt is only 2-D.  Maybe because only our particular universe is in 3-D.  God's realm isn't.


Speaking of lightning bolts, we had a massive thunderstorm last night whose cracking booms of thunder woke up the entire house.  I actually woke up screaming, because the sound startled me so greatly.  Before I knew it, Julia was in the bed with me, freaking her anxious little head off.  Madeleine was much mellower, staying in bed and simply commenting, when Ethan checked in on her, "I bet that thunderstorm woke the whole FAMILY up!"

Today, as we reminisced about the thunder, I told the girls about how I had actually screamed.  Julia described her reaction.

JULIA: Well, I was, like, kind of awake during the earlier thunder, and I was thinking, like, "Oh, GREAT, a thunderstorm."  And then when that BIG boom of thunder came crashing down, I sat BOLT UPRIGHT and I was like, "Is our house falling down??"

Luckily, nothing fell down around us, and we were all eventually able to catch another few hours of sleep.  I thank God and his 2-D lightning bolt for keeping our world's dimension from getting hit!