God as portrayed by year 4 students

Abstract

This study focuses on one aspect of children's spirituality, namely children's relationship with God. Two research questions guide this study, investigating children's image of God and whether they perceive Him as being immanent and involved in their lives, or as transcendent and distant from them. This was done using a qualitative research approach. The sample consisted of 22 Year 4 students attending a state school. After being asked to draw their personal image of Jesus within a 15-minute time frame, a semi-structured interview was held with each child. Children were asked to describe their drawn image of God, and mark God's presence on six separated cards, each showing a different incident from the children's ordinary life, after listening to a short narrative about the respective incident. The main findings of the study suggest that nine year old children tend to portray God in a very concrete way. In everyday occurrences, especially in positive and nurturing situations, God is portrayed as immanent and close to the children. He is portrayed as transcendent and far from the children in situations when they disobey or misbehave.