God’s Stories Are Like Blankets
I was wandering through the collection of American and Native American art at The Rockwell Museum in Corning, NY (not to be confused with the Norman Rockwell Museum in Sturbridge, MA) when I found a delightful exhibit. Perfectly folded blankets made from salt sacks were stacked almost as high as the mattresses in The Princess and the Pea, each tagged to represent an individual story. The artist embodied the nurture, the closeness, and the solace we find in stories by piling blanket upon blanket until it stood taller than a human figure.
Blanket Stories: Western Door, Salt Sacks and Three Sisters. by Marie Watt b. 1967;
The Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY
Our lives are stories. If we took a cross-section of our beings, we might find stories layered upon stories.
Writer Sarah Author says, “We are a story-formed people. Our lives are shaped by narrative, not by information. We don’t learn the Christian life by memorizing facts, rules, precepts, and morals.”
As Christian educators and parents, we long for our children to fall in love with God. We want them to know the Gospel as “the one grand rescue story” for their souls and respond to him through repentance and belief. We desire that they turn to God’s word as the source of wisdom and direction and its author as the Savior and Lord of their lives. We want God’s stories to blanket our children’s hearts, souls, and minds.
.How Can We Pass On God’s Stories Well
It can be challenging to read, study, and listen to God’s Word with fresh eyes and ears. Perhaps we’ve mistakenly replaced telling God’s stories well with teaching facts. “We just want to tell children, here’s what you need to know, know it, and you’ll be fine,” says Mimi Larson, Ph.D.
But that’s not how faith works. Faith is passed through God’s Word, by God’s Spirit, illustrating his great love for us and wooing us to repentance from sin and love for him. Facts are vital, but they must be rooted in the stories of God’s actions on our behalf. We fall in love with God, not with the facts about God.
It is the well-prepared teacher who leads us to the nuggets of gold in God’s Word, and shows us by God’s Spirit, the truths we so desperately need to affirm.
To do this well, we must take time for study, prayer, and reflection. There isn’t a substitute. Here are my best ways to become a masterful storyteller of God’s stories, which anyone can learn.
First, consider yourself as a co-learner with your younger brothers and sisters in the faith, whether or not they have made a faith commitment. Approach sharing God’s word with them as a gift, a privilege. You have the wisdom and experience of following Jesus; They need God’s truths and a loving person to convey them.
Second, study the passage the week before class. If time is a factor, make it part of your devotional reading. Ask God to guide you while you ponder this story. Mull over it when you walk, exercise, or fall asleep at night. Read what respected theologians have written about the passage. Watch The Bible Story Project for context and background.
Third, write out the story in a way that is appropriate for the age and children you are teaching. How does this passage help them love God more and see his grace, righteousness, and care for his people? What are the issues in their lives? Ask God what message He has for them. Avoid “should statements” or “be like” examples. Point to God rather than to a Bible character. Instead of “Be brave like young David who killed Goliath,” emphasize that God is worthy of our trust. Just as He helped David, He will help us.
Fourth, practice the story out loud. In most cases, you will find yourself returning to the Scripture to get the order and the dialogue correct. If the story is complicated, create aids. Mark an important Bible verse or dialogue with a Post-it note and read that as part of your presentation. Slip a notecard into your Bible with the story's highlights in the correct order. As you practice, vary your volume and voice to bring characters to life. Add appropriate pauses. Don’t rush through it.
Finally, if possible, arrive early for your class to practice and pray for God’s Spirit to be the teacher. As you introduce the story, show the children exactly where it comes from in God’s true Book, and leave your Bible open to this passage as you tell it.
What happens after a Bible story is equally important. How can children engage with the story? Avoid simple review questions with predictable answers. These disrespect children’s intellect. Instead, have the children comment or ask you questions. Children have insights and gifts to share with us. Don’t do all the talking.
Once, when teaching about Jesus’ command to “love our enemies,” a child asked me, “Does God love Satan?” That is a high-level, serious question asked by someone analyzing and evaluating who God is. Whatever you do, don’t laugh.
After hearing the story of the Flood, another youngster told her mother she “didn’t like the mean God.” She was wrestling with God’s judgment, something we all must process as we understand his righteousness and sovereignty.
Other ways to reflect are to draw or write a prayer response. Discuss ways to love, obey, and follow God in the coming week, or consider a previous Bible story and how it relates to this one.
A well-told Bible story changes us. The storyteller takes us on a journey to a faraway time where people just like us experienced God's intervention in their lives. The stories are true, and they are in our canon to convict, guide, and, by God’s Spirit, lead us to faith in Christ and a life of becoming like him.