High Expectations

“Whistle Down the Wind” is a motion picture of a few years ago. In the story a group of children find a tramp in a barn. Through a combination of circumstances they become convinced that he is Jesus Christ, come back to earth. Then the children’s little kitten gets very sick. Immediately, of course, they ask their “Jesus” to cure the animal. But the kitten dies and this becomes a terribly traumatic experience for these children: Why did Jesus let their kitten die? And, as so often happens with children when a pet animal dies, they go to ask the deeper question, “Why do people die. What is this whole business of death?” The children want an answer. They decide that the best place to get it is the Church. With high expectations they run to the nearest Church. They find the pastor at a table on the patio having his afternoon tea. Unceremoniously they pop the question: “Why? Why does Jesus let people die?”…