When your child asks about what we believe, and why we believe it…answer.
I hadn’t planned on giving a history lesson. I just wanted to relax and enjoy the day with my family. But as my children and I walked through the crowds of the Mall of America, one of my boys noticed something out of place. As boys often do, he stopped and asked me about it. “Dad, why is that chair way up on the wall?”
I didn’t even have to look. I knew precisely why an old wooden chair was fastened to the top of the high wall in the middle of the Mall of America. And, as fathers often do, I stopped, smiled, and answered with the most formal dad-voice I could, “That’s the most famous seat in Minnesota.”
Thinking for a moment, my son asked the question I hoped he would: “Yeah? Well, if it is so famous, then why is it way up there?”
That’s when I started the history lesson — the one I hadn’t planned on giving — right under a roaring corkscrew rollercoaster. I told my boys, and anyone else who cared to listen, that before the Mall of America was built, a baseball stadium stood there. Most Minnesotans know it as the “Old Met.” I showed them the home plate marker at the other end of the Mall. I explained how one of the greatest baseball players of all time, Harmon Killebrew, hit the furthest home run in Twins history from that very home plate to that chair so far away. I connected that distance to the new Twins ballpark, where a giant bronze glove stands the same distance from their current home plate. I went on to describe their two World Series championships. Then, on the way home, we drove by the new Twins ballpark.
I hadn’t planned on giving a history lesson that day. And my children definitely weren’t ready for one. But secretly, I’m so glad my son asked. For better or worse, my children have inherited my Minnesota fandom. But we now live in Wisconsin. We rarely get back to Minnesota. So this was an opportunity for them to see in person what they so often cheer for from a distance. It was almost as if that chair was bolted to that wall in the Mall of America for that very reason — to get children to ask their parents “why.”
In a much greater way, God did the same thing for his Old Testament people. When the Lord told his people how to celebrate the Passover — their rescue from slavery in Egypt — he built in a way for parents to teach its meaning to their children. “When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Passover to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt.
When he struck the Egyptians, he spared our houses’” (Exod. 12:26-27).
In fact, modern-day Jews still begin their Passover celebrations with this question. When the family has gathered around the table for their Passover meal, the youngest child asks the first question: “How is this night different from all other nights?” Then the father gives the answer.
Then there was the memorable occasion when God led his people into the Promised Land by piling up the water of the Jordan River. The people walked across on dry land. But God didn’t want them to forget the miracle. He wanted parents to teach that account to their children. So “twelve stones [were] taken from the Jordan [River]” and, “Joshua set [them] up at Gilgal. He said to the people of Israel, “When your children in the future ask their fathers, ‘What are these stones?’ you shall teach your children, ‘On dry land Israel crossed over this Jordan’” (Josh. 4:20-22). Parents were to tell their children what the Lord had done for them.
God equips Israelite parents for in-home Biblical instruction in Deuteronomy also: And it is with that type of generational instruction where God begins today: “When your son asks you in the future, “What are these testimonies and statutes and ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded for you?” then you are to say to your son…” (Deut. 6:20-21).
These aren’t just commands and encouragements for God’s Old Testament Israelites. God is equipping us today to answer our children’s spiritual questions with his Word, too. Perhaps you have. Maybe you faithfully brought your children to church. Maybe they even attend Sunday school. But now they don’t go as often, or at all. Maybe you taught your children, but they’re not doing such a good job of teaching God’s Word to your grandchildren. Maybe you’re raising children right now and it is getting so difficult to bring them to church.
But then those children start asking questions. Kids are good at that. So when your child asks about God and how he works, about his Word and Jesus, how will you answer? We won't always answer perfectly. None of us will perfectly model the Word of God. We’d rather teach our children or grandchildren about the things we really enjoy: sports, hunting, fishing, good citizenship, and serving. Those are all good things to teach — but none of them are the most important thing you can teach your children.
To save us from our sins of misplaced priorities, the Son of God became a child, a student, a teacher, all to be your Savior. We didn’t deserve any of it. Rather, we are saved by God’s grace — not because of anything we have done.
Now isn’t that a message worth teaching your children, your grandchildren, your nieces and nephews? And that is part of the role God has given to each of us. Historically, this is the time of the year when children go back to school. Church Bible classes ramp up. Sunday school rooms fill up with students. They are all coming with questions about sadness and loss, death and eternity, Jesus and eternal life. How will you answer?
Like those Israelite parents in the Old Testament, the Lord has equipped you to train your children in his Word, too. You don’t have stack stones from the Jordan River. You don’t have to travel across the wilderness. It is far more straightforward than that. When your child asks about what we believe, and why we believe it…answer. And if you don’t know the answer — because you won’t know every answer — look it up together in God’s Word.
Family devotion might be the single best way to do that. Get a devotion book. Read it once a day after supper, or before bed. Ask questions together and get the answers together. Come to worship together — because we hear God’s wonderful message of salvation there too.
These are more than the feats of professional athletes and the lore of a sports team. This is the account of your salvation, planned by your heavenly Father, fulfilled by his Son, your Savior Jesus. Nothing matters more.
So when your child asks…answer.
