One Pulitzer-prize winning journalist told me about an absolute rule she created for every interview question that she asks: she must respond to her subject’s answer with five follow-up questions. “Sometimes you run out, but since it's an absolute rule,” she admitted, “you get your best stuff when you’re forced to ask, ‘Really?’ or ‘Would you tell me more?’ ”
The writer of this carol asks, “What child is this?” We know this is Christ the King, come to bring salvation to the world. This answer raises more questions. “Why lies He in such mean estate where ox and ass are feeding?” asks verse two. Shouldn’t the King of Kings be somewhere else? This is just a baby, asleep on Mary’s lap. This baby will save the world?
How can God be 100 percent man and 100 percent God at the same time, as He was in Jesus? How do you explain the Trinity, really? Why does God love me unconditionally? These questions share the same answer: Only God could do it that way.
In his book If I Could Ask God One Question, Greg Johnson writes, “God’s not intimidated by anything – least of all, honest feelings and questions asked from a heart genuinely looking for an answer. . . .Though Jesus loves the intellectual who ‘has to know,’ He especially delights in believers who simply want to be with Him.”
We should never hesitate to ask questions or address God with our doubts; often there is a logical, faith-building solution. But sometimes, we are left only to embrace the mystery and the personal, loving God who created it.
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