When a Child Begins to Ask Questions…

A person soon learns how little he knows when a child begins to ask questions. Children often penetrate us to the very center of our souls, and in their honest, searching innocence reveal to us our own dissembling.

They want to know. And we give them words. How do seeds grow? Why is it cold? What makes it dark? What makes my heart beat? What makes me move? Why? What? How do you know? Our first answers often don’t satisfy – and another “why” could follow every answer. Life is a search for all of us, as we face the fact that we know much less than we sometimes suppose.

What makes two cells join and divide and become a living person? How does memory work? Who gave the body wisdom to heal itself? Who gave animals their instincts? What makes water expand when it freezes? (If it didn’t it would be a very different kind of world.) How was everything brought into being?

We discover, we observe. We use the forces of nature. We watch the operation of law. We explain with words – but without knowing much about the ultimate answers – the mind, the purpose, the prime mover, the origin of it all.

The veneer of sophistication and learning, is, after all, a comparatively shallow surface, and we are only using the facts and forces God has given. “I suspect,” said one who is wise, “I suspect that men haven’t discovered anything that the Creator was not already aware of,” – and through it all there is ample evidence that the Maker and Administrator of all that is, is very much alive, and keeps Creation in its course, which is our assurance that spring will come, that the seasons will follow in succession, that we may have our harvest, and that life will go on according to plan and purpose, despite our troubles, large or little – and there is no place for the presumption or conceit of any person, however much he thinks he may have learned.

Humility, with faith and reverence and respect is becoming to us all. A person soon learns how little he knows when a child begins to ask questions.