Does your family have a story they retell every year? At Christmas when my siblings gather, we always tell the story of the costumer who worked in the theater department at the University of North Texas who came over for Christmas Eve dinner. We always did a Christmas puzzle and had it out that night. She became consumed with the puzzle and became the dictator of the puzzle table. She decreed that no one could look at the picture of the puzzle on the box because that was cheating. She tersely gave commands about about how we were looking for pieces. To top it off, she stayed long into the night, welcoming the early hours of Christmas morning at the puzzle table as we (the last two siblings) had quit the puzzle altogether and napped on the couch while we waited for her to leave. Some stories get exaggerated over time; this one needs no exaggeration, and it never fails to elicit laughter as we remember that night.
If you are a parent, have you ever shared with your children the circumstances surrounding the day you professed your faith in Jesus Christ? Did you once upon a time meet with the Session to be examined for membership?
Have you shared with anyone about the person who embodied Christ in your mind when you were growing up?
Do you have a story of one of those "aha" moments when you knew God was in your midst?
Telling those stories again and again helps others grow in their faith and open others up to the possibilities of what God is doing now.
In timothy, we are reminded that his faith grows out of the faith of his mother and grandmother. I bet they told him some good stories about how they came to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Israelite self-identity grew out of the stories they told about people like Joseph. We read his story and recognize a fascinating tale; but it also becomes formative to how the Israelites understand God to be at work in the world.
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