In 2011, a little six year old girl nicknamed Lulu tasked her atheist journalist father Alex Renton to send mail to God. The mail was a handwritten letter by Miss Lulu, asking God who invented Him. She asked her father to ensure that the letter was sent and read by God and that she expected a response sooner than later. Sir Alex, not sure how to deal with this request, sent copies of the letter to every believing family member he knew and to several churches. Among the churches he sent it to, a certain Archbishop Rowan from Canterbury decided to respond to Miss Lulu, the six year old child that wanted to know who made The Maker. This was his response:
Dear Lulu,
Your dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers.
It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this –
‘Dear Lulu – Nobody invented me – but lots of people discovered me and were quite surprised. They discovered me when they looked round at the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and wondered where it came from. They discovered me when they were very very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected.
Then they invented ideas about me – some of them sensible and some of them not very sensible. From time to time I sent them some hints – specially in the life of Jesus – to help them get closer to what I’m really like.
But there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me. Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up the story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who could ask me awkward questions!’
And then he’d send you lots of love and sign off.
I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf.
Lots of love from me too.
Archbishop Rowan
(source: as told by the Letters of note newsletter)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. niv
As Lulu’s father finished reading the Archbishop’s letter about God’s story, he asked what she thought of the response and she said: ‘I have very many different ideas, but he has a good one too’. The Archbishop of Canterbury really did his best to speak to the mind of a curious six year old better than most of us could. I like to imagine that even Lulu’s father was left aghast by the boldness of his daughter and stayed puzzled by her response ‘I have better ideas, but his is good too’. Jesus tells us in the account of Matthew that it is easier for a child to enter the kingdom of Heaven than it is for a man. God wants us to hope for things we cannot see because no one hopes for something when they have it Children have rather mastered the art of hoping and imagining as far as they can and God meets them just there.
The Archbishop of Canterbury pointed out something very revealing- the hints which God tried to give us as human beings, the peculiarity in sending Christ as a living sacrifice, His own incarnation in human flesh, and most importantly how he outlines the ways some people ‘discovered’ Him. He points to the peace that suprasses all understanding which they felt and knew they discovered Him . Some discovered Him when they looked around themselves and found what they saw was very beautiful and concluded no one could possibly make it but God However, others invented ideas about Him which were both sensible or insensible. The Archbishop is pointing us to the infinite, bottomless nature of God. He was trying to show us that you can never get to the full understanding of God or be so satisfied that you stop seeking. He broke down elegantly the reason why we call interactions with God ‘encounters’ because an encounter always feels unfinished, enjoyable, like there is some more you can always gain whenever an encounter of that kind happens.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. niv
The process of making tapestry has always fascinated me, especially because it takes the entire involvement of the weaver who has to be meticulous and attentive. Any small mistake in making tapestry can ruin the entire artwork and cause the weaver to repeat the work. It brings me to wonder, what could possibly have been the revelation of the psalmist to cause him to write this psalm where he refers to his creation by God as ‘being woven together’ in the depths of the earth. Today, the world has set its own standards of what looking good means, whether it be the acceptable weight, the preferred color or texture of hair, or eyes or skin. God however, wove us together like colorful tapestry, each with their unique traits that make them stand out different from the other. The Bible says God created us in His likeness not His exactness. The likeness of a God that is omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite and bottomless is the exact reason why one of us is black or white, one is short or tall, the other has long hair while the other has an afro.
The psalmist goes far beyond creation and says that all the days of our lives were written and ordained even before we were available to live them. This is why in constantly striving and being extremely exhausted in doing so, we frustrate our inheritance which is the days he has already planned out for us to simply walk in. The Archbishop also mentions something very important, that some people invented sensible and insensible ideas. It is true that some ideas about God are sensible but not necessarily true or necessary and Paul warns us against this error in the first chapter of the letters to the corinth church. The ideas that are insensible however, like discarding the existence of God because He fits in none of the boxes or ideas one may try to place Him in are also rampant in our society.
This is why things like atheism, agnostic-theism, or polytheism exist and many people are being deceived into believing and adopting these insensible ideas – yet cannot make their claim without proving He does exist. A man with revelation and the undoubtable power of the Holy Spirit which intercedes for us, was able to write an exceptional letter which impressed a six year old whose response to the letter surprised her father because she still thought her ideas were plentier and much more interesting. You and I may never be able to fully grasp the nature of God and that is okay because He intends for us to live in communion with him all the days of our lives but I have sought and found that surely, as far as you can see – so does He will to bless and meet you. God is perfectly able to exceed the greatest of our expectations and to lead us into the days which He predestined even before we were made and our part, like Lulu’s, is to ask because then we receive, to seek wholeheartedly because then we shall find and to pray not amiss because He answers.
If you have never given your life to Jesus Christ, and you feel that this is the perfect time, pray this prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I thank you because you died for my sins and you were raised for my glory. Today, I receive you as my Lord and Savior. I am born again. Amen.”
