Several weeks ago, I told my sons we were heading to church one Sunday morning and one responded, “I don’t want to go there and see God. God is boring.”

I suddenly realized that my child had equated what we were doing in worship with who our God is. And I also realized how grueling a critique his words were.

If the only way people come to know God is through solemn prayers, often old-fashioned hymns and sermons, no-matter how well thought out – it is no wonder that some of our younglings might think our connection to God is perhaps not worth making.

What occurs to me is something we learned in bible class: our God plays.

It is not something we talk about very often in church, and it very likely may not be easy to practically implement in Sunday morning worship, nevertheless, God created play. Made God’s creatures for play. And God participates in play.

In fact, many of the ancient rabbis would tell us that at the end of every day, God goes home to play with God’s puppy, leviathan.

I find it very difficult to believe that our eternal home does not look far more like a place where we can laugh and play, rather than a stern and silent, picture-perfect palace. I imagine an epic, boisterous dinner party filled with storytelling and fully-bellied hysterics, with glasses clinking, and children of all ages running to and fro to see those relatives they’ve long been missing. God’s family finally together again.

I’m honestly not sure how we grow this vision in our regular worship and ministry, but I am quite certain we need to do better.

So, to get the creative juices moving, I leave us with this translation of Bill Brown’s from the book of Proverbs 8:22-31:

In the beginning God created me.
   God create me.
      Me!
         Me!

I was woven from the very beginning,
   woven,
       woven in the womb.

Before the Big Bang, I was birthed.
    Before earth and all stars,
       before the hills were set in place,
         I was born.
Before the moon kindled the darkness,
   before the wind kindled the fire,
      before the rain filled every ocean,
I was there.
   There I was!
      And there, and there, and there!

I was beside God growing up,
   growing and developing,
      nurtured and loved,
         growing in God's ways.
I was God's delight day by day,
    day by day.

I was the de-light of the world,
   playing and dancing,
      dancing and delighting,
Playing in God's wondrous world,
   in God's world of wonders!
Playing with the children of Adam and Eve,
   with lions and tigers and bears.
Oh my!
   Amen!
Let's play!