So my wife and I are sitting here right now watching Everybody Loves Raymond. We usually catch an evening episode after dinner. Tonight was a pretty funny episode. It had to do with Ray and Deborah attempting to answer tough questions posed to them by their daughter, Ally. At least, the episode began funny. As the episode developed I suddenly found myself saddened by the fact that the episode playing itself out before me is probably a pretty accurate snapshot of the way things really are in real life for all too many people.

Ally was originally asking questions about "where babies come from." Ray and Deborah were forced to try and answer what they were making out to be pretty uncomfortable questions. Armed with three or four books on human physiology, Ray finally went to Ally's room against his will. But when he got there, Ally had different questions in mind.

Ally said, "I already know men and women do something to make babies. But why does God want us here?"

Ray was shocked that Ally was asking questions that delved into the realm of philosophy and theology. As he started frantically searching through his sex books to find an answer it becomes obvious that Ray does not have a single answer for his daughter's honest and thoughtful question.

Ray finally replies, "You see, God is up in heaven, and it's very crowded up there. You don't want to be in heaven when it is crowded do you? Remember what it was like at Disney World when it was so crowded? God sends us to earth for a while to ease the heavenly congestion."

As the laughter coming from the live studio audience subsides, Ally's response to her bumbling father is all too accurate of a social commentary:

"What?"

Ray starts to fake sneezing in order to get out of the room.

Nobody said that the answers to life's biggest questions come easily. Yes, Deborah was right when later in the episode she remarked that religious and non-religious thinkers alike have debated the meaning of life for as long as men have walked the earth. But Ally didn't need a deep and exhaustive theological answer to her question. She was only a little girl who needs above all else in her life for her parents to teach her about a loving God who created people to have fellowship with Him and with each other. The "God-shaped hole" in her heart and mind can only be filled with a knowledge of and relationship with the God who created men and women out of His inner life of Holy Love. She needs to know that, despite the difficulties of life and regardless of whatever comes her way, there is a God who loved her enough to die on a cross, and patiently stands by waiting to enter her life and fill it with love, peace, joy, purpose, and meaning.

Instead she got nothing but silence and some well-timed comedic sneezes.

I have a sneaky suspicion that our country is full of homes where parents have no answers to the tough questions, nor to the easy ones for that matter. Instead, their children watch them as they spend their lives in the vain pursuit of the most temporal and eternally insignificant things. They learn from a very young age that what is most important is to make yourself happy and do whatever you want as long as it feels good or seems fun. They learn nothing of moral absolutes or truth. They see nothing beyond themselves. The only absolute they witness is the absolutely selfish quest for self-gratification. This ultimately leaves them with a sense of total despair when they learn that all there is to life is what Ray's dad suggested late in the episode: "Life is this: You are born, you go to school, you work, you die. That's all."

How sad.

What makes for funny television leaves people miserable and empty in the real world.

Perhaps the only one in the entire Barone family who was even trying to answer the tough questions was Ray's brother, Robert. Robert's line of questioning eventually ended up with the observation that "fruit flies only live a day." He asks concerning the fruit fly, "What's the meaning of life for him? Am I any different than the fruit fly?" What was obviously supposed to be a series of funny quips by the big older brother actually ended up being quite thought-provoking.

The truth is, apart from the fact that there is a loving and personal God who placed people on earth in order to find meaningful relationships with Him and others, how are we any different than the fruit fly? Apart from God, why on earth are we on earth? The answer is a resounding, "For no reason at all." There have been times when I have thought this sort of way, but then I force myself to remember Jesus and the sacrifice he made for me on a cross almost 2,000 years ago. I remember that God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that anyone who believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). You know, there was a day not too long ago when that was the most well-known verse among Americans. You know what it is now? "Judge not, lest ye be judged (Matthew 7:1)." This verse is usually only used by hypocrites against those who stand against sin. It is only fitting that a whole generation of selfish people make that verse (used out of context, of course) the only one they know or even care about. They use it as justification before others for a life of depravity.

I can only hope that as my wife and I plan on expanding our family in the years to come that we can adequately answer our children's toughest questions, not just with eloquent words, but by living consistent Godly lives. The answers to the meaning of life can never be found within ourselves. They can only be found in the One in whom life itself finds its origin. The words of Paul in his letter to the Colossians makes this point perfectly:

"For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him." (Colossians 1:16)

He is the source, purpose, and meaning of all life.