Opus 2024-324: A Long Drive

As I was sitting, looking at the crescent moon that was rising the sky, I could see a vague outline of the rest that was not lit up.  I’m too lazy to dig out my telescope and take a look at it, but I thought about maybe someday doing that with the grandchildren.  Somewhere in that experiment they would ask how far away it is.

How do you explain the distance to the moon to a six year old?  How do you get across the concept of 238,000 miles?

They will be driving up to see their other grandparents over Christmas and it will be 1,250 miles over a 2 or 3 day drive.   I thought about trying to explain to them that if they were to take a road to the moon driving at the same speed that they drive going to grandma’s house, they might be 8 years old before they got there.  I’m not sure it is possible to get across the concept to a child.  It’s hard enough for me as an adult to understand but at least I have a general grasp.

Now take some of the bigger concepts that the Bible teaches us.  How about the eternal nature of God?  How about the Trinity?  How about the incarnation?  How about the glory of the new Jerusalem?  There’s so many things that we can kind of get a general feel for, but we can’t really put our hands around.

Just as the child has to accept from the adult general sense of reality, so we have to accept the teachings of God has given us in His word.

homo unius libri