One a normal, sunny Saturday afternoon, a father is driving the car to do some errands, his toddler-aged son sitting in the passenger seat next to him. Weeks ago the toddler got a new baby sister that mommy is at home caring for, giving the boy some much-needed daddy-time. Bouncing in his seat, fiddling with the door lock and the window, it's clear that he's excited at the prospect of spending some alone time with his father away from her.
After some more fidgeting and squirming, the boy rights himself and, with an innocent look to his father, aks, "Daddy where do babies come from?" The father, not totally shocked by the question, actually expecting it, surprised that it hadn't come sooner, answers the toddler, "Well, son, it came out of mommies tummy. Daddy and Mommy put it there." The boy, not missing a beat, shoots back, "Where did you get it?"
Although the father had anticipated the first question, the second had catches him off-guard, and he stutters for a response, still stammering as his son unloads his clip of machine-gun questions, "But where did you come from? Did Grammy and Gran Gran put you in Grammy's belly too? But where did it all start? Who put the first baby in the mommy's belly?!" The boy's agitated but sincere inquiry causes the father to quiet in contemplation at the profundity of his toddler's honest but challenging questions.
The determined, dependent, and created nature of humanity is one of those great and difficult realities of life. Man, for ages, has had to face his own nature which is ever-contingent upon others for being and identity. Think for a moment of the toddler's questioning: every human is born to parents who were born to parents who were born to other parents on and on till before time, each living in a different scenario, in a different culture, in a different time. All in all, humans must recognize that we do not exist in and of ourselves. The postmodern ideal of autonomy simply does not cohere to reality.
In fact, only God is self existent. The only self-existent being is "I AM," the One who was, and is, and is to come (Ex. 3:14; Rev. 1:8), by whom all of creation exists as a result of His hand of creation and sustaining, done so in and by His Son (John 1:3, 10; Psa. 33:6; 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16). In truth, this is the fundamental truth of all existence, put forth by the first words of the Bible, "In the beginning God...(Gen. 1:1)."
Recognition of God as who He is should compel us in so many practical ways, not the least of all being our identity. Because God is the Creator of the whole universe, including each one of us, and His identity is not derived from anything but Himself, He is the One from whom we receive our true identity. This means both repentance and humility but also the highest of sincere devotions, meaning that we will come to God to receive our true self, from the One who is truth.
Therefore, when answering the toddler's questions, we will be clear and concise that the beginning and end of all things is, unequivocally, God. Let us then, when pressed with our own limited, finite, dependent nature, draw close to the Holy Lord Almighty through faith in His Son, Christ Jesus!
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