But why? How come? When will it be?

 Someone once said they didn't know all the answers, but they enjoyed taking on the questions. I am kind of like that individual. I like the questions - they challenge my mind. I like to see what will come out of pondering an idea - if it will 'fly' or fail doesn't really matter - I just like exploring the idea until I can see it fully. It doesn't escape my attention that each child comes into this world with a 'blank slate' of a mind and before long that mind is exploring all matters of immediate interest. You remember those days if you are a parent - those endless minutes of question after question that seemed so unnecessary - but oh how necessary they were to that little one! As a parent, we might have been a little frustrated by the endless questions, interrupting our 'workflow' and challenging us with slightly odd things like why goats poop nuggets and horses poop 'clods'. Yup, those questions may not make a whole lot of sense, but it was their little minds beginning to understand not all things are the same - understanding what made things different was part of their mind's development. God isn't put off by our questions - even when they don't make a whole lot of sense. Even when they seem frivolous to us or others, God considers them extremely important to answer because he knows it is forming our understanding of him, how he moves, what he considers important, and how much he loves us.

Now when the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame connected to the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; there was not anything too difficult for the king which he could not answer. When the queen of Sheba observed Solomon’s wisdom and the house he had built and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their clothing and his cupbearers and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, it took her breath away. (I Kings 10:1-5)

 Some of our questions are really aimed at questioning what God is doing, or how he is going to do it. We want to know so we won't be all the surprised by the next thing that is about to come along in our life that will challenge us or get us inspired. These are necessarily 'bad' questions, but if the attitude is one of needing to control the outcome ourselves, then they are certainly not the right questions to be asking. God is always going to ask us to let him take control - there is no doubt about that one. We might just need to understand how God will move next because we are so intent on not missing even one moment with him, but to be truthful we are probably a little desirous to be 'one step ahead' of God's next move! The questions we ask actually reveal a great deal about our heart attitude at the moment. When we ask God 'why did YOU let that happen to me', we are likely asking because we 'blame' God for something that happened. We don't like the outcome and we immediately move into the 'blame' mode. God isn't put off by our 'blame game', though. In fact, he counters our question with a question or two of his own. Questions aimed at revealing our heart - our intent, our action, and our reaction. 

 There are times we will ask questions of God because we are kind of doing what the Queen of Sheba was doing with Solomon - testing him with 'hard questions'. In turn, he tests us and that can make us quite uncomfortable. As a little one, learning quicker and easier than any other time in my life, my questions were met with answers most of the time. There were times when the questions just didn't get answered though - in fact, I was 'questioned' to see why I thought a certain thing was the way it was, or why a certain thing happened when there was a precipitating factor. Why was I questioned when I asked the questions? Parents and teachers were helping me to learn - to reason things through, explore a little deeper, put two-and-two together. These were things I could 'reason through' because I had all the 'elements' of the answer - I just needed to put it all together in my own mind. Some of what God does with us when he 'turns the questions' around to us is just that - he is helping us put all the pieces together because we already know the answer - we just haven't allowed it to be fully formed in our minds yet.

 The next time we go to questioning God and he returns a question with a question maybe we need to keep that in mind - he is helping us to learn. He isn't dodging or avoiding the question - he is helping us to take what we already know and put it all together. In essence, he is bringing 'light' into our hearts and minds so we begin to see all the pieces that fit together and then he helps us to put it all together. We have that 'aha' moment - the evidence of knowledge being turned from mere knowledge into fuller understanding. So, learn on my friends!