Stories

We’re a year or so into reading a story from The Complete Illustrated Children’s Bible each night to launch into bedtime (which we’ve then followed with Narnia, A Series of Unfortunate Events, My Side of the Mountain, Little Princess, Peter Pan, Howl’s Moving Castle – it’s all I can do not to push the boys too quickly into more complex stories – this is one of the great joys of parenting). 

I’ve been caught off guard by the depth of our discussions and how much more our nightly, child-focused theology sits with me throughout the week — often more than our grown-up Sunday sermons or even my own quiet times in prayer.

As an adult, it’s so easy to read about the rich young ruler and look for Biblical justification to hold onto wealth or glaze over the passage entirely – Zacchaeus was saved and he only gave away half his wealth! Isn't this somewhat dishonest though? Jesus is explicit – any devotion to money stands in the way of full surrender. Give to everyone who begs from you. It's hard to read these stories to children and maintain my own self-deception.

We read through the parable of the workers in the vineyard a few nights ago; the simple insights are the ones that linger.  The first workers would’ve been thrilled with their wages if they hadn’t seen other workers being blessed – am I not the same?  Every time I log into LinkedIn I find some career envy – why invite comparison at all instead of rejoicing in what I’ve been given?  Yes, we took your brothers for ice cream while you were at math class — but haven’t you received your good things from us too?