The Joy of Hard Questions

My husband and I raised a son who was (and still is) high on the intelligence scale. He was asking deep questions from a young age. I think he would wake up in this deep frame of mind, because he often seemed to ask these kinds of questions while I was trying to get him, his sister, and myself ready on a work-day morning.

One deep theological question he raised when he was about four was the following: If Jesus’ birthday is in December, when is God’s birthday? From a young age, he wanted to know about God.

I don’t know if it’s because of all the theological conversations with my son or not, but I find joy in hearing third and fourth graders voice the hard God-questions on their minds. It means that they are wanting to know more about God.

Hard questions do still catch me off guard. It’s not as if I start a session with, “Does anyone have a hard question they’d like to voice?” Often, however, I am glad when students do raise a hard question—even if at the time I have to say, “I don’t know the answer, but I’ll try to find out.”

Sometimes these questions come up naturally during our discussion. One Sunday our Bible story was Rahab. We discussed how Rahab hid the spies. One boy asked, “Then is it okay to lie sometimes?”

It seemed important that I answer in a way that wouldn’t give sanction to lying but would keep with the truth of the story. Rahab did lie, and God still honored her for helping the spies. I tried to answer on the spot, but my answer seemed inadequate. And so I wrote a letter to the boy and all the other kids who had been there that day and tried to answer more fully in language they might understand. 

At times, a question may go beyond the scope of the actual story. I’ve had these questions: Why do we have the stories of Jesus in more than one book? (For instance, four accounts of Jesus’ resurrection.) Isn’t everyone a part of God’s family? (Well, yes and no.) Why are all the people in the Bible white? (They aren’t, of course, but this was at least one boy’s perception.)

These questions all caused me to do more thinking, to go back to the Bible, and in the case of the question about race in the Bible, do some more research into countries. It was fun for me to wrestle with the questions and seek a way to explain to the children.

I feel humbled when a child trusts me enough to ask the hard questions. I’m pretty sure I won’t have answers to all of them. (After all, no one can explain everything about God.) But that’s okay. I wouldn’t want students to stop asking. Hard questions are part the faith journey. And I feel blessed to have come alongside some neat kids as they wrestle with the answers to theirs.

By Kathleen Buehler