Archive - August 6, 2012

Last week I got to spend the morning with a mother from our church and her two young children. At the kitchen table, we began to discuss what Kevin’s job entails. I began by explaining that he works at the Star Center, a place that helps adults and children with disabilities. Not missing a beat, her three-year-old daughter asked me, “Mrs. Renae, what’s a disability?”

Children ask great questions. When they encounter new objects, people, or concepts, they don’t hesitate to ask about them. Some questions catch us adults off-guard and leave us stammering through unrehearsed answers. But there is one question that we should always have a ready answer for, “Why do we do all this “Jesus stuff?”

In a recent sermon at my church, one of our pastors used Deuteronomy 6 to support his main point. After referencing the Shema, he pointed out the difference between the word “when” and the word “if” in the proceeding passage.

²⁰ “When your son asks you in the future, ‘What is the meaning of the decrees, statutes, and ordinances, which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ tell him, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand. ²² Before our eyes the Lord inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household, ²³ but He brought us from there in order to lead us in and give us the land that He swore to our fathers. ²⁴ The Lord commanded us to follow all these statutes and to fear the Lord our God for our prosperity always and for our preservation, as it is today. ²⁵ Righteousness will be ours if we are careful to follow every one of these commands before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’

I have never been a slave of Pharaoh in Egypt. But I have been a slave of sin in death. I have never seen the blood turn to water, locusts fill the sky, or any of the other plagues, but I have watched houses and lives ripped apart due to living selfishly.

God has brought us out of sin with His strong hand. And He anticipated the day that our children and youth turn to us and ask, “Why do you follow Jesus?”