Why Do We Help?

Earlier today I was driving down one of the main streets in our city. As I avoided being hit by the fast drivers, and trying not to run into the slow ones, my son initiated a very serious conversation with me.

"Daddy, you know when there are fires and people stop and try to help (people not in police cars of ambulances)?"

"Yes."

"Why do people try to help?"

"What do you mean," I asked.

"Why do people try to help? Why do they want to?"

My jaw dropped open and for a moment I became lost in the philosophy of my elementary-educated son. Thankfully, reality hit me in time to swerve from running into the stopped car in front of me.

I scrambled for an answer, "A lot of people just want to help."

My son's face betrayed the inevitable "why question."

Suddenly, my answer plunged me into a philosophical and theological quest. What makes people want to help others? Why do we sympathize and empathize with others? What about our humanity causes us to stop a car and help someone in a dangerous situation?

Surely there is more to us than flesh and bone. Certainly, the fullness of our humanity is not caged inside our fleshly bodies.

There is something within us, something that wants to help. Maybe it is the "rescuer-mentality" meeting the "in-need-of-rescue-mindset."

Or maybe it is the way God made us.