“… a little child will lead them” Isaiah 11:6

 

It isn’t difficult to see the fingerprints of the Divine on the hearts of humankind. No matter where you look—history, anthropology, sociology, or religion—you see religious expression.  I, for one, though, think that perhaps as many of those fingerprints of the Divine are found in the nursery as in the cosmos.  A little child often does more to turn the hearts of men and women to God than perhaps all those who were led there by philosophy or even the logical proofs of God as outlined by Anselm and Aquinas.

Why? There’s something awesome about the gift of life, about the imprint of heaven in the simplicity and unaffected innocence of a child.  No sooner does a child learn to talk than he voices the great interrogative—WHY?  And an endless variety of questions pour forth from the mouth of the innocent. “Why do I have to drink my milk? Why do I have to pick up my toys? Why do I have to eat my spinach? Why, Mommy, why?”

Dr. Hugh Ross, a scientist and apologist who is a Christian, sees human curiosity as one of the evidences of God’s existence.  Mothers, of course, know all about this. Dads are not always the objects of extreme curiosity.  Dr. Hugh Ross believes that the curiosity of humankind is different from that of animals–say, for example, a cat that plays with a ball of string or an antelope who sees your hat on a stick from a distance and curiously approaches to see what is there. He writes, “While cats may be content to play with string and stones and bouncing crickets, humans want to understand everything there is to know about the string, stones, and crickets. Birds look to the star patterns in the night to guide them in their life-essential migrations, but humans seek to make sense of the patterns and understand starlight itself.

“Humans ask, ‘What it the nature of the universe? What is our place in it? Where did the universe and its life forms come from? Why is everything the way it is?’ Humans are the only animal to ask such questions, and some individuals invest (or risk) their lives to gain answers.”

He concludes, “God made people so intensely curious that in their drive to study all aspects of the cosmos, including their own minds and hearts, they would discover clues that point unmistakably to Him” (“Human Curiosity as Evidence for God”, Connections, Quarter 4, 2004, p. 5).

No wonder David, an amateur astronomer, wrote, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4).  David’s curiosity brought him to God. Yours will as well.

“Mommy,” asked a little girl about four years of age, “why don’t we go to church like my little friends do that I play with?”  Taken somewhat by surprise, the mother, having never talked about God with her little child, said, “Well, I suppose it is because we don’t believe in God.”  The little girl thought for a moment and asked, “Mommy, does God know that we don’t believe in Him?”  And a mother who professed not to believe in God began taking her little girl to church with her.

And did the mother become a believer?  I don’t know, but I do know that a child believes easily, not infected by the skepticism and mental roadblocks that seem to erect a barrier behind which we hide, attempting to say that He is not on the other side. There’s an answer to the why of every heart, and when you connect with God, you’ll understand why.

Resource reading: Romans 1