REVIVING FAMILY BIBLE ENGAGEMENT I BY PAUL DADD | Children and Families Consultant, SUNZ
n the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household.’ —Deuteronomy 6:20-22 In this passage from Deuteronomy, God doesn’t instruct parents and adults to give abstract explanations or theological propositions in answer children’s questions about His laws and decrees. Rather, He instructs the parents to tell a story—the compelling story that speaks of God’s faithfulness and love.
20 www.sunz.org.nz
But why a story? Well, because God has made us a storied people. God has placed within the human spirit something that can relate to, inhabit and be transformed by stories. Stories allow us to understand realities we would not grasp through any other medium. As Ivy Beckwith puts it:
‘I think God gave us stories because God wants us to know God’s essence and to fall in love with God…. I think God wanted to capture our imaginations, and the way to capture most people’s imagination is through a good story.’ Throughout history, God has given the responsibility to families, supported by their communities of faith, to pass on the story of God’s faithfulness to their children. How can
