Of Questions and Answered Prayers

A late soccer practice that ended just as the sun went down.  A passel of nine and ten year olds streaming down the grass hill to first get drinks and then head home.  A little girl who took her glasses off and set them by her water bottle for safe keeping, not realizing that water bottles lose their stationary, x-marks-the-spot function once you pick them to get a drink.  A pair of pink and purple glasses nestled somewhere in the green-brown blades.

And so goes the story of the season's first soccer practice.  I left out the part about a grouchy dad turned coach who told the girl she could get up at six to come search the field in the sunlight.  Who knew that those glasses would actually be a part of my girlie's wrestling with the idea of God's sovereignty?  As she headed to bed, I followed to suggest we pray about those lost glasses.  I was met with a series of questions and deep thoughts that I would never have guessed were rattling around in her head.  

"Why should we pray about it?  I don't think God really cares."  "But if God really cares about all the little things in our life, then why does did He let me lose my glasses?  Why didn't He just keep me from losing them in the first place?"  "I'm not sure God loves us because He didn't stop this from happening."  

"So many grown-ups spend their whole lives wondering the same things, sweet girl."  "God doesn't cause bad things to happen.  But He does make good things come out of the bad."   "We just don't see things the way God sees things.  He cares most about us being near to Him and while some things in life seem really bad and painful, God knows those things are just temporary."  "Those are really good questions and I'm not sure I've got all the answers."  "It's always okay to ask questions about God and to God."  

I did pray for the finding of the glasses.  She didn't seem all that satisfied.  We found the glasses this morning, when her precious papa went to the field for her.   I pray she always asks questions.  But more than that, I pray she always keeps seeking the answers, even when the answers just lead to more questions and especially when the answers leave her full of doubt.