The pastor of our church handed me a quarter-sheet of paper on Sunday, adorned with red and blue markers. Above a drawing of Jesus on the cross, in excellent seven year old penmanship are the words:
Dear Pastor,
How did God create Himself?
From Connor
Being wise, my pastor outsourced his answer to me. Being less than wise, I accepted the challenge. I’ve decided that the only appropriate answer is one written in large block letters with a marker. So how would you answer Connor’s question in one sentence?
eric daryl meyer 
God is before all things so he never had to be made.
The kid gets the pre-emminence thing and knows that only God can create God. He’s just struggling with timelines and method. Smart kid. So since he’s asking “how” rather than “did”, and since this might be a chance to give him a “life riddle” here’s an attempt from the perichoresis angle:
“God creates himself all the time by being in relationship with every person around him.”
I guess I’ll go with a (modified) favorite quote from a favorite author, George MacDonald – “If one does not know the answer to a question, what is easier than to say so?”
So that would make my answer a firm “I don’t know.”
Might as well say — for sake of clarity and to preserve a sense of mystery — that God never started and never stopped creating himself. It’ll take Connor at least ten years to get past that answer, so long as it’s said with a wink.
An mind boggling assignment indeed. Although I appreciate it because explaining the reality and truth of God to a child is right at my level. Here’s what made sense to me before looking at others’ responses.
GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN, BUT HE HAS CREATED HIMSELF TO HUMANS BY TELLING AND SHOWING US WHO HE IS.
Excellent thoughts!
I’ve been away for the weekend, so it was wonderful to come back to a whole list of insightful responses; from the appropriately apophatic (Tim), to the playful (Grace’s wink), to the existential, for lack of a better word (Pat). I’m about to post the response that I actually gave—in one page of green marker—but any of these would have been wonderful answers as well.