37 Questions

Read: James 1
Reflect: I don’t know if you have spent any amount of time with young children lately but I can assure you there is one thing that kids absolutely love to do – ask questions. Their favorite location to ask questions? The car. Without a doubt. They have you contained and unable to escape and will take full advantage of the situation. I actually started counting one day. We reached 37 questions in ten minutes.
“Can we vote for Abraham Lincoln for governor?”
“Is a governor like an advisor to the President?”
“Do Republicans and Democrats actually fight each other?”
“Is Grandpa still alive?”
“When you and Dad die who gets to pick your buried place?”
“Who gets us when you die? Will we just live with Nana and Pap?”
“Why do you like mints?”
I am exhausted just from the ten-minute glimpses I get inside my daughter’s brain. Her questions often come from real places of concern and tackle topics that she is trying to wrap her mind around. Some I answer easily: “Abraham Lincoln? Governor? Nope.” “Mints? Because they are good.” Yet other questions I dig deep to find an answer that will suffice at an age that isn’t quite ready for adult-depth knowledge.
Life comes with a lot of questions. They don’t stop when we turn seven and unfortunately the questions we are left grappling with are not ones that others can answer for us. Why cancer? Why poverty? Why death? Why depression? Why job loss? Friends are well-intentioned but friends are not all-knowing. The longer we are alive, the harder the questions become that barrage us on a daily basis.
My daughter knows who to take her questions to every time – she brings them to her parents. She trusts us to provide an answer to her questions and a calm to her fears. She trusts us for the wisdom that she does not yet have. Don’t we need to do the same? Without a doubt, we need to take our questions to our heavenly Father.
How grateful we should be for a Holy Father Who is omniscient (because no matter how good I am I will never be able to answer every question that girl throws my way). We have a Father who knows our questions before we even ask. A Father who has all the wisdom. “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” (James 1:5-6)
Apply: The next time you hop into your car, may you be reminded of the questions of a child. May you turn your eyes to the Father and begin to ask. He can handle your 37 questions in ten minutes. Ask him for wisdom. Ask him for peace. Ask him for understanding when there is no understanding to be had. Ask. Because unlike me, we have a Father who will never lose patience with our questions.