When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, “What does this ceremony mean to you?” then tell them, “It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.” Exodus 12:25-27
In 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. But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors. The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.” Deuteronomy 6:20-26
[Joshua] said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.” Joshua 4:19-24
My hope is that this blog equips parents to invite their children into the great story of God’s redemption by embracing their natural inquisitiveness. We can do this in three ways. First, we pay attention to the descriptions of God, humanity, and the world in the books that we are considering for our kids. We all know that stories are powerful. What I hadn’t always considered was particular power of the story’s narrator or editor. This blog contains both lists and descriptions of our family’s favorite picture books and children’s Bibles.
Second, we are intentional in our celebrations of holidays. The seasons of Advent and Christmas, followed by Lent and Easter provide special opportunities for families to practice key aspects of redemption’s story year after year after year. During the season of Advent, we grieve the brokenness of our world and practice waiting for the light that shines in the darkness. By Christmas we are primed to celebrate God becoming one of us so that we can become children of God. The season of Lent challenges us to turn to God in humility and repentance until it is finally followed by Easter, the Church’s biggest day of the year, when we celebrate new life brought by Jesus’ victory over death. In the section Practicing our Faith, readers will find ideas and resources that we have found particularly helpful during these seasons.
Finally, we honor our kids by engaging them in thoughtful dialogue. Our three year old asks a lot of questions! When not paying attention, I can very easily gloss over or dismiss them. But when I take the time to listen I’m amazed at his depth of understanding. His questions, in fact, have led to some of our best conversations. In posting reflections on some of these, I pray that you will be encouraged to welcome your children’s questions as opportunities to teach God’s word diligently, talking of it when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise (Deuteronomy 6:7)