Questions can be tough. Questions can drive a person mad, in fact. The questions that seem to work the toughest on me seem to be those with no apparent answer. The why questions are especially dizzying, in my opinion. Why this? Why that? Why me? Why not me?

There are so many of them. See if you can think of 10 in 30 seconds. I can. Why 911? Why did some daddies start out late to work and survive? Why did some mommies run late in dropping off their babies for daycare and, in so doing, save them? Why did many daddies and mommies show up for work on time, leave their babies with in-building caregivers and.....? We can answer some larger questions with grand political explanations and anthropological theories, but when it comes down to it....why?

The why's follow us personally, too. Why was I born to parents who love me and each other? Why wasn't that person...or that one....or that one? Why was I born here in a country and state free of civil wars, where I could go to school, where I could go to bed at night never knowing real hunger? Why were so many others born places so vastly different? Certainly not because I deserved this and they deserved that. So, why?

I think that was more than ten. I've long since stopped trying to find the answers to these questions. They have been relegated to the "I don't know" file in my brain. I've often been annoyed by my husband's attempts to answer my "why doesn't God answer my questions" question. He usually encourages me to keep asking and conversing and see where it leads. Hmm...I usually end up thinking that I don't really want to converse with someone who would allow some of the things I see on the news....and then.....

Tonight's prayers:
Miss Mouse: "Gracious God, sank you for pretecting us from the tundertorm. We had fun today. How is Baby Hope doing?"
Miss Mouse: "What is God saying, Mommy?"
Me: "I don't know. He'll probably be answering you; it was your question. What is He saying to you about it?"
Miss Mouse: "Mmm...I sink he is saying "Sank you for offering the question"."

So, maybe, maybe Mr. T is right when he tells me that the asking of the questions is to continue the relationship, to continue to converse with the King of the Universe, the Almighty, who could answer them all if He chose. I don't know why He chooses not to. But I do know that He speaks to us, to Miss Mouse, and to me through her simple acceptance that the offering of the question is enough. Perhaps it is. Point taken.