The Law Comes Naturally

The other day Brant and I were discussing the idea that the idea of Law comes naturally to us as humans. We all inherrently understand that good deserves reward and bad deserves punishment. Of course, reinforcement of this throughout our lives helps.

Last week, my wife called me up and told me that our eldest son's (he's three) sense of justice had been offended. I had driven to work, having forgotten to take the car seat out of my car and put it back into my wife's. My wife had to drive a couple of residential blocks with my son buckled in with the regular seatbelt to drop him off at his grandparents'.

When my wife explained to my son that she could get in trouble from a policeman if stopped, my son responded in bitter protest. But Daddy was the one who didn't put the car seat back--He should get in trouble! Though my wife tried to explain that that it's her fault for driving with him not in a carseat, he would have none of it. He saw the greater error as being my own and justice would simply not be served by punishing Mommy. And rightly so!

Ah, the clarity with which moral issues are seen by small children! (And may I never forget the carseat again!)