The Hardest Questions Result In the Best Answers

Today my six year-old said to me, "Ya know sometimes I wonder if God is real. I mean how do I know the Bible is true, I wasn't there,"? I think that if he had asked me this a few years ago I would have immediately launched into reasons to believe. But I did not. Maybe it's because I've gotten used to saying, "I don't know" to his constant questions (usually about science. Thank God his aunt is a chemist!). Or maybe its because I'm in a season of questioning too (Thanks in a large part to Brad Jersak's new book Stricken By God). Whatever the reason I found these scary words coming out of my mouth, "Why don't you ask God to show you he is real?"
Scary for me because of all the what ifs that go through every parents head. "What if he stops believing in God? What if he asks for something so outrageous and God doesn't answer? or what if God does? What if he becomes convinced that another religion is true?" Scary because with those words I gave up control of my son's belief. Without really meaning to, I gave it up to God. He is the one who has to show himself real to Toby. Toby is the one who has to respond. God is the one who has to keep him.
Scary, because with those words my trust in God is put to the test. Do I trust him enough to take Toby on the journey of faith, wherever it may lead? No matter how scary it looks to me? Or how close it skirts to the edge of unbelief?
Years ago some friends and I spent time studying the Bible. We called ourselves "the heresy boys" because we looked at issues that are often (some rightly so) considered heretical. We studied the Bible to seriously look at issues like reincarnation and whether or not hell is transitory. We did not always come to the same conclusions, but, at least for me, the questions led to a closer more secure walk with God.
God is not afraid of the hard questions. He does not shy away from, "If you are loving how can you allow rape, murder, disease?" or "Or why did you call for genocide in the Old Testament?" Or "Where were you when . . ." These questions are scary to us because we are afraid of what the answer might be. What if God doesn't answer? So, we don't ask, or we do and supply a trite answer. But I think God wants us to ask. Not so he can answer all our questions, but so that he can reveal himself to us. He is not afraid of where these questions may lead us, because he is able to keep us. Not only is he able, he is faithful to do so.