Faith, Doubt, and a 4 year old
Mariel asked in the car on Friday a very good question.  "Why doesn't God give warnings, Mom?"  she asked.  "Like if bad guys are going to kill people or something.  Why doesn't God give a warning?"  Darn good question, kiddo.  As parents we give warnings all of the time, which is I am sure what she was thinking about.  If our kids are going down the wrong road, we give a warning to help steer them back.  But sometimes we don't know that it is the wrong way, I guess, and maybe even the most attentive parent can misread a situation.  But Mariel is in a stage of certainty: there is a God, and he is all knowing.  Which means that she wonders why he is not warning the bad guys (as in: this is a BAD choice. don't do it.) or the people getting hurt (as in: you might get hurt today if you go to X place.  go somewhere else!)  Why are there no warnings for people caught in floods, in car accidents, in wars that they have nothing to do with?  I sure don't know the answer. 
This week a dear, dear friend of mine (a wonderfully loving woman the same age as me, with two small children, married to another dear friend) was diagnosed with Stage 2 non-Hodgkins lymphoma.  She went in to the doctor on Tuesday because of veins that had popped up on her chest.  A rapid fire chain of tests, CAT scans, biopsies, and appointments later, she was diagnosed with cancer.  By Thursday they were ready to start her on chemo and radiation as quickly as possible.  This was two days after what she most likely expected to be a routine appointment.  Another woman I know from Mariel's old school, another young woman my age with two small children, was diagnosed with breast cancer last week.  She is also very healthy, no family history or warning signs, and went in to the doctor because she had a milk duct that kept plugging (she was weaning her toddler).  Why don't they get a warning?  Why can't they make a different choice?
So I don't know why God doesn't give warnings.  I told Mariel that God tries to teach us in other ways, by giving us friends and family who help to teach us what is right and wrong and how to be good, strong people.  And that when people make bad choices, God is sad, but he still loves us.  And if people need help, he is always there to love them.  That seemed to be a good answer for her for now, even if I don't feel that it is enough of an answer for me.  What do you say when your children start asking the same questions that you don't know how to answer for yourself?  Like why isn't life fair, or why do people doing everything right sometimes get the worst outcomes?