Sometimes I forget what it was like to be a child and just believe anything was possible. Like the time when I thought I could just waltz right up to world famous evangelist Kenneth Hagin at a conference with 15,000 people and ask him the deepest of theological questions that nagged my 8-year-old mind: “When you said in your personal testimony that your brother used to chase you around with a two-by-four, did he ever catch you and hit you with it?”

At an age when kids constantly challenge adults by asking “why?”, your challenge back to them results in another question: “Why not?”

Last week I shared the story about my 4-year-old daughter Faith and how she wanted to help the kids victimized by the recent tornadoes in the Southeast. I thought it was a neat idea and sought out a way to empower her faith. When you see a heart like that, there’s something about it that just inspires you. Our church made a video, too, with Faith asking others to help. But just how inspirational her idea was remained to be seen. I thought maybe we’d get a couple of hundred at best.

And then this happened …

Two local radio station deejays decided they wanted to help, too. They told Faith’s story on the air and challenged hundreds of people to donate as well. And people did, filling the hallway outside our church’s children’s ministry entrance with hundreds of stuffed animals.

And then a local TV station picked up on the story, filing this video report last night.

I still have no idea where this will land, but I do know that child-like faith finds a way to lift us out of the cynical nature we tend to develop as adults and touches the heart of God.

People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” – Mark 10:13-15 (NIV)

We ask, “why?”, but God asks, “Why not?” He asks, “Why not use the murderer? the broken? the lame? the hypocrite? the poor? the weak? Why not use the uneducated? Why not confound the world that is wise in its own eyes with the foolish who are anything but? Why not accomplish My purposes with those society deems misfits and outcasts?”

Little kids think anything is possible. Their perspective on the world is not enclosed by experience; it is swung wide open by imagination and the healthy naivete to believe that anything can happen.

Fortunately, I’ve got a front row seat with my daughter, watching her faith be filled with wide-eyed wonder. And while she’s excited about what’s happening, she’s still cool about it, telling me, “Daddy, I knew people would give because … I asked them to.”

I experienced the fruits of such faith at a young age too when I did indeed make my way through a sea of people to a well-shielded Kenneth Hagin. He motioned me over to hear my burning question and belly-laughed before taking a moment to serious answer my question. I’ll never forget that moment–or the way my dad encouraged me to ask God to make it happen on our way to the conference.

Let us pursue child-like faith today in a fresh way, asking God for something we long since thought was impossible in our lives–and watch with wide-eyed wonder as He says, “Why not?”