“Why?”
Pre-schoolers continue to amaze me with their ability to interact excitedly with other children, but more amazing to me is their questioning on any topic with the incessant use of one word, “Why?” This was made even more clear to me one Friday afternoon when I picked up my almost 5-year-old grandson from Tae Kwon Do.
As I was helping him get into his car seat, he looked at my nose with horror and concern and asked, “Grandgoi, what happened to your nose?” (My grandmother name is a story for another time!) I told him I had gone to the dermatologist for a check-up and showed the doctor this red spot on my nose, at which point the doctor said let’s freeze this and hope it goes away in about a month. Why, Grandgoi, why did the doctor freeze your nose?” “Well, when I was 16 years old, I thought I knew more than my dermatologist dad and I was convinced that Johnson’s Baby Oil was a more effective sunscreen than real sunscreen.”
I was wrong. This line of questioning continued all the way to Costco and even into Costco when I had to negotiate and explain to my grandson why we were not buying the humongous Pac-man machine or all the Lego boxes. That was exhausting!
Even as adults, we continue to question why events happen in our lives or we question why an event doesn’t occur and so many times we ask God, “Why?” We are in good company, though, when it comes to asking why. Some of the most recognizable people in the Bible reached out to God questioning why they were singled out: think of Moses, Sarah, Abraham, Job, David and, most of all, Jesus. Each of these individuals faced a daunting request from God.
Moses has the unenviable task of leading the Israelites out of Egypt and freeing them from slavery; Sarah, at the age of 90 years, discovers she will finally have a child and she is more than a little terrified at the thought of running after a toddler at her age; David becomes a king, makes a few unwise decisions and asks God, “Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”[1] Jesus asks the hardest question of all at the end of His life, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”[2]
During this season of Lent, instead of asking God “why” something has or hasn’t happened, remember that when you feel God nudging you to do something, He has a purpose for asking just as He did with Moses, Sarah, David and Jesus.
[1] Psalm 10:1, NRSV
[2] Matthew 27:46, NRSV
