The One About Rhetorical Questions, School Runs, and the Love of God
Dear West Family
I love it when I get to take my daughter Katie to school. I don’t love getting up in the dark or the time before the caffeine kicks in when I feel like I am recovering from some kind of multi-month comatose state, but once we are out the door and going, I love it. We get to chat and sing and be silly, and I get to pray for her and for her day ahead. We have a traditional interchange that happens right as we get into the car line and while we wait our turn.
I always ask her … “Nunu, do you know what?”
She typically replies … “What dad?”
“I love you so much!” which is my standard answer with lots of emphasis on the “so.”
“Ah dad. I know that. You tell me that every day. You’re so silly … ” she says, smiling to herself.
Yesterday morning it went a little differently though. Apparently 7-year olds are learning grammar, and it kind of ruins everything. Here is how it went yesterday.
“Nunu, you know what?”
“Dad, don’t be silly. That’s a rutonical question.”
“A what?”
“A rutonical question. Like when you don’t actually need an answer.”
“Ah, you mean a rhetorical question?”
“No dad, it is rutonical. My teacher says so. Maybe they say it differently in South Africa?”
“I think they do Nunu. I think they do.”
As she got ready to get out the car, she paused and looked over her shoulder, I think in a realization that her new learning had potentially destroyed one of my favorite traditions, and then with a huge twinkle in her eye she asked …
“Dad, do you know what?”
“No, what is it Nunu?”
“I love you sooooo much silly. You see, it’s rutonical?”
All this got me thinking. I tend to waste a lot of energy asking a question that God thinks is rhetorical (or maybe even rutonical). When I wonder if the love of God is real and available and vibrant towards me, I am essentially asking a question that God settled long ago, and I love that He did it in such a tangible way. The apostle John, who experienced the love of Christ so deeply, says …
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. - 1 Jn 4:9–10.
For the Christian, the question of God’s love towards us is a rhetorical one. It needs no answer but simply needs remembrance of the work of the cross of Jesus Christ. We don’t need to allow ourselves to bounce up and down on the experiential highs and lows of a faith journey, wondering if God loves us as much in the valley as He does on the mountain top. He loves us in the cross. Question answered.
Oh what joy we would have if we never questioned that again.
He loves you.
The song this week is a slightly silly one, but contains one of the most iconic grooves in pop history. They still rock it even though Curt Smith looks as though he popped into the studio on the way to a late afternoon tee time.
Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Live) 2022
See you Sunday,
Ross
