Questions

"Why Mommy?'
"What's that Mommy?"
"Why Mommy?"
"Who's that guy Mommy?"
"Why Mommy?"

My son is in the stage of asking all kinds of questions, most often, "Why Mommy?" Most of the time, I don't mind the questions, but there are times when they get annoying, like when I'm trying to do something quickly.

Often the questions can be easily answered, "What's that Mommy?" Uh...that's a dump truck, that's a grocery store, that's a cow. Some questions are harder to answer, "Why is that there?" Uh...I don't know, I guess someone left it there. And then, the hardest question to answer, "Why?" Some whys are hard to explain to a three year old.

This morning I was thinking about all the whys my little guy has been asking and how some of the answers are so obvious, but they can't be explained to a three year old. That's when it hit me that my intelligibility of the whole universe is much like a three year old when compared to God's infinite and all-knowing knowing.

The biggest mystery of all is probably the question of suffering and evil.  If God is good, then why do bad things happen? It's called the mystery of theodicy. And then the question that follows is why does suffering destroy some people and other people grow stronger from it? I suppose to God the answer to that question is very straight-foward and makes perfect sense but how do you explain that to a three year old?

Perhaps my son has the answer to getting the answer: just keep asking why, why, why until you get an satisfactory answer.