DEVOTIONAL Header2023

A Child’s Question

June 10, 2025
06102025WEEKLYDEVO

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 22:13, NIV).

 

One of my colleagues popped into the office this morning as clinic was starting to tell me a story about his precocious daughter:

 

“Yesterday, my 8-year-old daughter Audrey asked me a question.”

 

“Dad, everything has a beginning, right?”

 

“Yes, that’s right.”

 

“Then, what about God, does He have a beginning?”

 

Isn’t it great there are questions our human logic cannot answer—questions we are brave enough to ask as children but then hide from our thoughts when we grow old and tired of thinking that hard? Our inability to answer does not invalidate the questions, but our minds reach their limit in trying to solve them.

 

If I, or even artificial intelligence, could someday answer my colleague’s daughter’s question, would I still need a God who is omniscient?

 

We need to be careful that we don’t worship a God of the gaps (as Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Letters and Papers from Prison), One who only matters when we cannot answer the questions of life. There was a time in our history when God was the only One who knew that the earth orbited the sun, the only One who knew that bacteria caused sickness, the only One who had seen the other side of the moon. Did God lose His importance when mankind uncovered His truth in each of these? Our God is more than a God of the gaps.

 

Nevertheless, I’m convinced there will always be gaps in knowing for humanity. No matter how much knowledge we uncover regarding the natural world, without God I will never logically answer the questions that make live worth living: where did I come from, why I am here, how should I live and where am I going?

 

Someday mankind will uncover most of the truth that lies in the natural world. God created us as discoverers, and I praise Him for it. However, there will be little lasting value in our discoveries unless we share them with, and surrender them to, the God who loves us and created us.

 

Dear Father,

Thank you for letting us learn more and more about your creation and for the good that knowledge provides. Help me always know that Jesus is the foundational truth upon which all knowledge must stand or lose its significance.

Amen

pexels-rdne-6149192
Weekly Devotions

Making Smiles

“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever” (1 Chronicles 16:34, NKJV).   He was an ordinary man ...
pexels-bertellifotografia-573258
Weekly Devotions

When Our Children Suffer

“But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children” (Psalm 103:17, NIV).   ...
pexels
Weekly Devotions

A Window That Isn’t There

“And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in ...
Weekly Devotions

Hospice Mallards

“Because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you ...
Weekly Devotions

Level

“Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but ...
Promises
Weekly Devotions

Some About Me

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of ...
Weekly Devotions

Droopy Lids

“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2, ESV).   Lately, multiple people have asked me if I was tired. I ...
pexels-cedric-fauntleroy-4270365
Weekly Devotions

Time Enough

“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6, NIV).   I was totally ...