A New Look at an Old Story

Putting my son to bed each night contains several repeatable steps:

1.  My son will ask to play for “five more minutes.”  This is a request we almost always grant, however, he is never really happy with the outcome.  Josh is only two years old, has just learned to count, and has no concept of time.  This combines to make “five minutes” equal to an indeterminate period of time (not now).  A two year old asking for five minutes is akin to a contractor telling you the project will be done in two weeks, or a spouse telling the other, “I’ll be there in a minute.”

2.  Time to brush his teeth.  Despite the fact that his toothpaste tastes like candy (don’t ask me how I know, I just KNOW, ok?), he hates this step and resists it vigorously.  Brushing a two year old’s teeth is somewhat like standing up in a row boat on the open seas.  The task would not be that hard if the surface didn’t keep moving.

3.  Next we change his diaper and put him into his PJ’s.  My personal favorites right now are his Superman jammies (that were last Halloween’s costume).  The shirt no longer fits quite right, exposing his pouchy tummy underneath.  For those of us who were fans of the old Batman television show, it kind of reminds me of Adam West  in those gray tights.

4.  Finally, we settle into a chair to read a story.  Lately, Josh’s favorite stories come from a children’s Bible that retells Bible stories at a level children can understand.  Truthfully it is a great time for both of us.  The stories are told in such a way that a child can understand, but the bigger truth of what is going on there is not lost on me, reading it again as a grown adult.

I was thinking about these Bible stories today as I was preparing for Sunday’s sermon at Wildwood.  There are stories in the Scripture that we have seen many times — passages we are so familiar with that we can recite verses within them without having to even look it up.  What is amazing to me, though, is that these passages do not lose their power or depth as we grow in Christ.  Christians only two years into their spiritual journey to believers who have spent their entire lives in Bible Study all can gain deep insight by looking at these familiar passages.  This Sunday at Wildwood, we are going to be looking at a very familiar passage together in both our 9:30 and 10:50 worship services.  We will be looking at Luke 15 in a message entitled, “My Two Sons.”  Take a moment over the next couple of days to reread Luke 15 in preparation for Sunday.  This passage is clearly worth a second look.  Maybe read it as a bedtime story the next day or two.  As a Father who reads to my son, this passage allows me to hear a story from my Heavenly Father that challenges me and encourages me as I drift off peacefully in His arms.