Do Butterflies have ears?

"Do butterflies have ears, Mama?" came the tiny voice from the pink bedroom.
"Do dolphins have ears?"
"Do strawberries have ears?"
"Do queens have ears?"

So the questions continued coming, flowing out of Madalyn's two-year old mouth and mind at a quizzical pace. She was flipping through a typical baby alphabet board book, where each page has a different letter symbolized by images. She was picking them at random, taking for granted that the C page contained a cat that clearly did have ears (c'mon, you can see them right in the picture) and the Z page had a zebra who seemed to be showing his ears off with pride. But that strawberry picture representing S, well, it was hard to tell if the red fruit had ears hiding beneath the leafy top. Butterflies have antenna...do those count? There are indentations on the side of a dolphin's slippery head, but are they, in fact, ears?

I'm not completely sure why this toddler quandary was so touching to me. Maybe because it was the first time I was asked some rite-of-passage parenting questions, like "Why is the sky blue." Maybe it was the pride that my baby now knows the name of every single animal, fruit, and amphibian in that board book. Her questioning was precious, innocent, charming, and...challenging.

I have gone through so many changes since Dan and I married on July 29, 2005 (one of them being that I got married!). My questions have gotten harder as I've matured and watched the lives of my close friends, family, and myself get complicated and complex. I'm trying to catch up with the newness of being a mom and wife, and my biggest questions are for God.

Please join me as I try to discover again truths that once came naturally. Hear my story, let me hear yours, and let's enjoy the beauty and simplicity of questioning together.