Stories

Many years ago, a couple of my cousins from Wisconsin would come to Illinois to visit. They were about 10 years younger than I and we would have a good time visiting together. When it was bedtime, I would read to them from an English storybook that my Father brought home when he returned after World War II. The book had adorable pudgy-cheeked children and precious elves and even snow fairies!

I married about 10 years later and these two delightful girls were my flower-girls at the wedding. We really did not have much contact through the ensuing decades, other than some Christmas cards, attending the funeral of a beloved Aunt died, and receiving a wedding announcement.

On our trip last summer, we were going through Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin to visit friends and I contacted one of these ladies to see if we could get together for dinner as we journeyed through the state. Plans were made and we did so.

decoration at campsite — **Decoration at campsite in Rivers Edge Campground, Stevens Point, Wisconsin**

She contacted her sister and the next day both of them came to the campground for a visit and then dinner. We had a delightful time.

pool play area at campground — **Pool play area at Rivers Edge Campground, Stevens Point, Wisconsin**

To my astonishment, they asked if I remembered the stories that I read to them years earlier from that old English storybook. When I said that I did, they asked that I tell them two of those stories before they left the campground that evening. I was honored to do so, and we revisited the Pixie who stole a taste of pink ice cream and the Snow Fairy who disobeyed and became stuck on earth. Two adult women remembering life lessons that had been encapsulated in stories told decades earlier in their childhood, and me cherishing the time with them and recalling when the stories calmed them so that they could sleep in a strange house.

This past week we were working with come elementary school children and singing the song “The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the Book for me, I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E.”

In doing so, the children had fun singing at the top of their lungs, while the adults revisited the time in their childhood when they, too, learned the song. But far more than having fun, the song is imprinting the message on the children’s minds that the Bible is the Word of God and it is something that lasts, you can stand on its teaching because it is from Almighty God. They may not understand all that, but it is in their heads and hearts and someday, when they are older, they will remember its teaching, just like my cousins remembered those comforting stories.

The importance of teaching children the Word of God is a direct command of our God. For example, in speaking of the law and commandments of God as given to Moses, we read:

“You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

Deuteronomy 11:19

The Psalmist says the following:

“Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.“

Psalm 34:11

No matter our age or station in life, we all can say with King David:

“Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.”

Psalm 86:11

Snow fairies and Pixies are not real and the stories are not imbued with the imprint of the Holy Spirit of our God. However, Scripture is, and we have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to teach them what God says in His Word to guide them as they go along life’s pathways.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,“

Hebrews 12:1

This great cloud of witnesses refers to those who have gone before us, who paved the way so that we could know of God and of His Word. So, will your children remember when you read the Bible to them? Will your grandchildren remember that you told them the stories in the Bible? Will your family be able to point to you as a person who assisted them in understanding God’s Word? Are you paving their way through the Scriptures?

Father, teach us to do Your will and to tell the next generation about Your marvelous works in our own lives as well as in the lives of those who have gone before. May I spread Your Word as I live my life in witness to Your love, grace and salvation through Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer.

We recently returned from a trip out west and we visited a number of the U. S. National Parks. They all made indelible impressions upon us with their grandeur, their diversity, their colors, and their spectacular beauty.

One example of this is Bryce Canyon outside of Richfield, Utah. At an elevation of 8,000 feet, it is a riveting place of fascinating geological formations, which are called “hoodoos”.

20180707_141832

The “hoodoos” are spires that reach way above the canyon floor. At first glance, they appear as if they are giant orange-flavored snow cones.

Some of the spires seem to be huge apartment buildings, even with balconies overlooking the terrain and with green trees growing on the “roof penthouse”.

20180707_141941

Around the bend, toward the edge of the canyon, there were more spires, albeit somewhat shorter and they did not seem to be as carved as the other spires. We were advised that this area was the “new” portion of the canyon. In future years, these will be as incredible as the “hoodoos” that we had just seen, and they likely will be reduced to rubble.

As we stood looking at the new section, I pondered what storms these youngsters would have to endure in the future, what temperature extremes would come their way, if they would stand sentry over their aging counterparts. And I thought of the stories that the mature “hoodoos” would tell them if they were able to do so.

But, the reality is that all of this came in the millennia that created the canyon as we see it today and it was captured, in a nanosecond, by a digital camera. The details of the canyon’s creation, the carving of the individual “hoodoos” and the struggle of the trees to find a place to grow are not part of the story told by the canyon in our pictures.

In short, the canyon’s history was condensed into a split-second picture of serene beauty.

Often on our trip, the high desert terrain gave me a visual impression of what I supposed the people of God might have experienced in the wilderness. We know that the people of God were in the wilderness for 40 years, but Scripture only tells us of what happened in the first two years of their wandering and then the narrative skips to the end when they arrive at the Promised Land.

Matthew Henry says this of the missing years:

The thirty-eight years, which after this they were away in the wilderness, were not the subject of the sacred history, for little to nothing is recorded of that which happened to them from the second year to the fortieth. After they came out of Egypt, their time was perfectly trifled away, and was not worthy to be the subject of a history, but only of a tale that is told, for it was only to pass away time like telling stories, that they spend those years in the wilderness, all that while they were in the consuming, and another generation was in the rising. The spending of our years is like the telling of a tale. A past when it is past is like a tale when it is told. Some of our years are as a pleasant story, others as a tragical one: most mixed, but all short and transient, that which was long in the doing may be told in a short time.

Psalm 90:9 says:

For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.

We know from personal experience that we can tell the tale of events in mere moments when the actual event took months or even years. While we think we will live a long time, the reality is that in cosmic terms, our life is fleeting and, when it comes to an end, it is like a sigh. Even the canyons of our national parks change with the years.

But there is something that is, indeed, eternal and not fleeting. Jesus said:

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

Matthew 24:35

Praise the Lord for His Word, the Holy Bible. Praise the Lord for His steadfast love and mercy. Praise the Lord for His wondrous works. Praise the Lord!

Lord Jesus, I thank You for Your love and Your sacrificial death on the cross to pay for the sins of Your people. Thank You for Your Word and for preserving it so that we could learn of You and trust in Your Name for our salvation.