Why, Why, Why?

We were sitting in a local ice cream shop enjoying great decadence. I watched a young mother introducing her 18 – 24 months old daughter to the joys of ice cream.

The child watched her mother spoon the dripping, gooey stuff into her mouth, close her eyes, savor it for a moment and then swallow. Then the mother put a small amount on the spoon and reached toward the child who opened her mouth, baby bird like, and tasted the ice cream offered to her.

The child shivered slightly as the cold sweetness began to melt on her tongue. You could almost see her processing this presumably new food and deciding whether or not she wanted to add it to her list of favored foods. She must have decided “yes” because she edged closer to the table and leaned her little head forward anticipating another tiny taste.

My thoughts flew backward to the previous week and a visit from Ethan and his continuous litany of “whys”. He is at that age…when a child can eventually drive every adult within a certain proximity to insanity with the constant repetition of “why”.

Being a grandmother I can take one step back and watch the process between my daughter or my son-in-law and their child.

I remember that process when I was a young mother and getting to that exasperated point when you want to (or do) blurt, “because I said so” or “because it is!”

Now I can remain detached enough to see that the entire world is new to a child. Some of their “whys” are genuine because they don’t know why the street has to be dug up before it can be blacktopped again. They don’t know about germs and why we have to wash our hands so often. They don’t fully comprehend the needs of our bodies and why we have to go to bed at a certain time.

I watched Becki and John patiently (most of the time) answer Ethan’s “why”, followed by another “why”, followed by another “why”. It suddenly struck me that his little mind (little but still so awesome) is growing each day. He is constantly taking in information, processing it, adding much of it to the memory of that wondrous computer we call a brain. But he is young enough that there is always another “why”.

At the same time, while Bill and I are amazed at what his brain can retain (he can tell you the correct names of ALL of the streets they must travel to get from their house in Chicago to Grandma and Grandpa’s) I suddenly realized that there are a whole lot of things he doesn’t know and we would not dream of telling him. He knows NOTHING of politics, even though this is a big part of the news right now. He is learning a lot about fruits, veggies and even fungi, but he hasn’t a clue about genetics (yet). He can tell you the names and destinations of all of the elevated trains in Chicago, but he couldn’t tell you the name of a single constellation.

He is rapidly learning about the world around him, but that world is still confined and controlled mostly by the adults who care about him.

As he is able, Becki and John introduce new ideas, new books, new conversations into his world and his knowledge and understanding grow. There are still an endless number of “whys”, but the scope of the whys is ever changing.
And so it is with us and God. We too, in our own way, at least many of us, are forever asking God “why”.

“Why did this happen? Why do I feel this way? Why didn’t you answer that prayer, or at least answer it the way I asked? Why do people treat each other the way they do? Why can’t other intelligent people see life the way I do?” Well, you get the picture.

Does God ever get tired of our “whys”? Because I often think of God in human terms, I suspect He gets tired when it is the same “why” over and over. There certainly seem to be times in Scripture when he says to various people, “because I said so”.

But most of the time God is so patient with us. Answering our “whys” in a great variety of ways. Sometimes He asks us to wait till we “are a little older” and can understand it all better.

I can imagine if that little girl at the beginning of this story had asked her mother “why should I taste this new food? ” her mother might have answered, “Just taste it, trust me, just taste it, you’ll like it.” Sometimes I think God says that to us as well, “trust me, it will all turn out for your good. You’ll like it.”

The world in which Ethan lives is bigger than he can imagine; there is so much more for him to wonder about, so much more to learn. His grandpa prays every day that Ethan will never lose his wonder. Too many of Bill’s students (especially in the later years) seemed to have lost their wonder. But the adults who care about Ethan carefully shield him from what he is not ready for or capable of learning just yet.

Our world, God’s world, is also beyond our comprehension. Like a perfect parent God knows what we are capable of understanding and only exposes us to what we can learn today. We have hints of the more that there is to learn, but He only unfolds that as we are ready.

As a student of Scripture, and a student of this world, I am amazed at how I keep learning year after year. I was pretty certain when I finished Bible School that I knew it all. Each of you also understands that you know less and less the older you get. That’s because you realize there is ever so much more to know, to learn, to understand.

I find the unfolding of Ethan’s mind a great delight. Every time I see him I am amazed at how much more he “knows”, how much more he understands. I am so honored that I can participate in his teaching process; that I get to answer at least a few of the “whys”.

I think God too wants us to be filled with wonder. Wonder not just about Scripture, but all of life. I think He wants us to be asking a continuous stream of “whys”. Not the same “whys” over and over, but ever new “whys” based on our growing comprehension of who He is and His creation – all of it.

When we ask a new “why”, He also expects us to stop and listen to His answer, to think about it and when we’re ready, ask the next “why”.

When we are ready, God answers our “whys”. And once in awhile He says, “just trust me, you’ll like it.”