Scriptures:
Deuteronomy 4:9
But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children—
Matthew 10:27
[Jesus said,] “What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.”
Matthew 13:24
Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field…”
Thought for the Day: On occasion, I turn to the great philosopher Walt Disney for insight. With all seriousness, he was an incredibly insightful individual when it came to human nature. He once said, “Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards – the things we live by and teach our children – are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.” Disney, of course, chose story (animation) as a means of exchanging ideas and feelings. The Jewish community into which Jesus was born made storytelling a central aspect of the community’s life together. The faith stories Jesus would have heard were values and ethics packaged in easily transported narrative containers. Parables, though a specific type of story, were used by Jesus to impart and infuse Kingdom values among his disciples. He used the ordinary to convey the extraordinary, the everyday to reveal the infinite. In our current culture, the art of storytelling appears to be disappearing. Many people don’t appreciate its usefulness in teaching and instilling valuable ideas. Though after 2,000 years, the stories shared by Jesus are respected for the truth disclosed, and equally important, they are remembered because of the means by which that truth was disclosed.
Prayer: My life is shaped by the stories I see and hear. I pray, O Lord, that your story of grace is woven into the fabric of my life-story, for in doing so, your Kingdom is being made real in and through me. Amen.
TOMORROW NIGHT
Wednesday
Dinner at 5:30pm
Study at 6:30pm
