Life, the universe and.... so many unanswered questions

I woke up with a headache this morning.  Actually, it was the one I went to bed with, only worse.  Of course it's a beautiful sunny day and the light bores into my eyeballs like an ice pick.  But I can't hide inside with the blinds drawn because we have to take Liam to the health department for vaccines.  This would, of course, be the day that the nurse giving the vaccines chooses to question our decisions about a vaccine schedule and to try to scare me about the terrible illnesses my unborn child could contract because of having a sibling who is not fully vaccinated.  We nodded politely, took the brochure and stuck to our guns.  It was fine. 

But the more I think about it the madder I get.  It's not that I think my position is the most rational one or the only and best.  But it's not based on ignorance and I hope that it's not based on fear.  I like to think that it's based on my understanding of the risks and benefits involved.  I'd appreciate it if other people would give me the benefit of the doubt in this regard.  OK.  I could go on about this for a long time.  It probably wouldn't make me feel any better. 

The point is that we did make it home and after another round of "Where is Liam?" where I actually didn't know where he was and got a little panicky and a little more irritated I did manage to get him some lunch.  While he was (supposedly) eating his lunch he starts asking questions about how the universe/world was made.

It's probably not surprising that he has these questions since our pastor just spent nine months teaching about the "primeval prologue" (the first 11 chapters of Genesis).   Or that fact that Allen teaches a class on cosmology - or how people understand the universe, how it was formed and how it functions.  I am not surprised that he's asking the questions and I want to answer them as accurately and completely as I can.  But I have a headache.  And our view of these things is complicated.

 "Where did the universe come from?"
"God made it."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"You should really ask your dad about this.  Some people say that all the stuff was in one place and it started moving out - expanding.  And then gravity and other stuff made planets and stars and galaxies form."
"And trees, and people."
"Yes."
"Did trees come first or people?  ...... Where did water come from? .....Oh I think it just fell from the sky in places where there is water."  (I did keep responding to his questions.  I'm just trying to give you an idea of how the conversation went.)

So at the risk of starting two completely different debates in one blog post I will say that yes, we believe that God ultimately "made" the universe, and that the Genesis account is accurate, but that it wasn't intended as a scientific manuscript.  We don't feel that our faith is threatened by the scientific evidence and we don't feel that science is threatened by our faith.  It makes as much sense to me, when my child ultimately gets back to the question of "where did all the stuff come from" (which you know he will) to say "God made it" as to say "it was always there" or "we can't know for sure."  Any of those statements involves faith and I'm fine with that. 

If God created the stuff, where did He come from?  I feel that this question is probably lurking in the wings and that the answer that "God has always existed" points to the fact that life will always be full of unanswered questions.  I think that Liam will be fine with this.  He often expresses satisfaction about his ability to "know things" and frustration that others know things that he doesn't.  But I think that if he found out one day that he knew everything there was to know about the whole world he would be completely at a loss.