7 minute read
SHARING GOD’S WORD WITH CHILDREN
GOOD RETELLINGS OF BIBLE STORIES FOR CHILDREN SUPPORT THE CHILD TO ENGAGE WITH THE TEXT WITHOUT DICTATING WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO TAKE AWAY FROM IT
BY JESSIE ROGERS
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How we go about sharing bible stories with children reveals a lot of what we really believe about both Scripture and children. Rebecca Nye, an expert in childhood spirituality, wonders whether a lot of what is done with the aim of appealing to children “is made on the assumption that neither children nor the Bible have profound spiritual qualities” (Rebecca Nye, Children’s Spirituality: What it is and why it matters). That is quite an indictment! When we stand in awe of the depths and dignity of childhood and experience Scripture as the transformative word of God in our own lives, we will be in a good place to wonder about creative and fruitful ways of bringing the two together.
Children already experience God. They bear God’s image and are created with an instinct for connection. We do not fill empty vessels with spiritual ideas or manufacture the link between God and the child. God longs to connect with children and children long to connect with God, even if they have no words for that longing. The role of caregivers and educators is to nurture that connection and to give the stories, images and safe and welcoming spaces for children to affirm, explore and deepen their fundamental instinct for God. Making that our starting point is a gamechanger.
By calling the Bible ‘word of God’ we are recognising it as an important part of how God communicates with and relates to us. When we call it ‘Scripture’ we acknowledge that these are sacred texts for the faith community. The Bible contains stories and songs that shape us and that give us a language for our spiritual lives. The Old Testament is full of stories of how people encounter God and the difference that makes. In the Gospels we meet Jesus and come to know him by watching and listening to him in the stories themselves. The stories allow us to meet a Jesus who is not just a creation of our own imaginations. This is as true for children as for anyone.
STORYTELLING
Bible stories do need to be adapted for children, the more so the younger they are. Good bible story books employ ageappropriate language, length, and story structure and engage young readers or listeners with visual storytelling alongside the words. Doing this well is no easy task. There are also choices to be made about which stories are told. Clearly not all stories are suitable for children. But we are not limited to the sweet and happy stories; children experience fear, anger and loss too and the word of God can speak to all of that. A bible story book reveals what the adults who wrote and illustrated it think the bible story is about, and what they believe children want or need to see and hear. If the depths of either the bible or the child are not duly acknowledged the results will be stories that do not engage the child or are too simplistic to become the basis for a lifelong dialogue with the word of God.
It is always tempting to try to tame the Bible. We domesticate the bible stories when we think that their function is to tell children what to believe or how to behave. If that is our approach, we will try to find the ‘moral’ or the ‘lesson’ which is the kernel that we want the child to take away with them, as if the story itself were just a wrapper to be discarded once we have the ‘truth’ inside. Can you imagine approaching other literature like that? Who, after reading a wonderful story to a child at bedtime, would stop and ask them what they learned or what they should do in light of the story? We know that stories and storytelling do something much more fundamental than impart information or moral lessons. Why would we want bible stories to do less?
Good retellings of bible stories for children will be simple but not simplistic. They will support the child to engage with the text without dictating to them what they are supposed to take away from the story. Illustrations are important, but they should invite the child in and not place unhelpful limits on the possibilities for engagement. If everyone is a smiley cartoon character, how can the child bring their own shadows to the story? Good illustrations will not be too quick to dictate what the child should have heard or noticed or how they should have interpreted a character’s reaction to a situation. A domesticating reading could be masquerading as a concluding prayer or an instruction on how to behave. What Craig Dykstra says of religious language is true for both the text and the illustrations in bible story books. It should be “clear enough to be comprehensible by young people, rich enough to be meaningful, concrete enough to relate to the world as it is, and critical enough to keep open the dynamics of enquiry and continuing conversation” (quoted in Elizabeth F. Caldwell, I Wonder: Engaging a Child’s Curiosity about the Bible). If children are not supported in engaging the word of God in this way, they may well decide it is something to be left behind as they grow up.
WONDERING TOGETHER
God’s word is best shared with children in a context of genuine connection and response. Reading or telling bible stories and wondering about them together allows connection to happen on multiple levels. Seeing the conversation that happens during and after the story as ‘wondering together’ opens up a whole new approach. Instead of the adult knowing what the story is about and asking leading questions or guiding the child to the ‘take-home lesson’ that the adult already possesses, adult and child together are addressed by the story and open to being surprised, intrigued, troubled, or delighted by it. If the storyteller wonders about the story themselves, genuinely and openly, they give permission for the child to wonder too.
If we desire the wondering to continue in creative response time, then the colouring pages so often used in parish and school settings may not be the best option. Colouring-in is a fun activity, but think about what the ‘colouring page’ does. It re-presents a single snapshot of the story and asks children to engage with and internalise only that. They can decide whether Abraham has a blue or red cloak, for instance, but not if he is excited or frightened or a bit of both when he sets out to the land God will show him.
And what if they wondered about Sarah in the story and she does not even appear in the picture? The same materials – paper and crayons – offered as free drawing would allow the children to enter the story wherever they like, or to draw something from their own life or even a different story. The story of Abraham’s journey, for example, could be the catalyst for them to draw some of the people and objects that they miss from the place they left when the family moved. And if there was a sand-tray and some wooden figures, they could take the journey across the desert …
Those of us who practice lectio divina know how life-giving praying with Scripture can be when we see our lives reflected in the text and find words and images that deepen our faith and connection with God, others and the world. Those dynamics can also come into play when we share God’s word with children. Children benefit from having the visual alongside the verbal, either in pictures or story-telling materials, but the aim is still to open up the story for them, to invite them in, to support them to wonder and to respond to the word that God speaks directly to them.
What could happen if we start from a position of trusting God to connect with children and are open to being delighted, disturbed and surprised by Scripture ourselves? What if we gave up the need to control the outcome of what happens when we share God’s word with children and trusted the Spirit to be the teacher? I wonder.
