“You come at me with a sword and a spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord God of Israel. This battle is the Lord’s!”
And with those words, the (Nerf) stone would fly through the air and hit Goliath right in the forehead (sometimes). Goliath would dramatically fall to the ground – another mighty triumph for God!
Then, we’d trade roles and act it out again.
Because one does not simply read the story of David and Goliath; one must act it out. Preferably with costumes, props and lots of drama.
I suppose it was inevitable that our son Dave’s favorite Bible story would be David and Goliath and he would want to hear that one every night. It took some convincing but eventually we managed to read all the stories. One evening, Dave requested “Puffing Up Dough” and I was flummoxed. No matter how hard I tried, I could not recall a Bible story about puffing up dough.
Fast forward several decades. As we prepared to attend the dedication of our 1st grandchild, Edyn, I did some digging in Dave’s “Memory Box” and found his old Bible. I dusted it off, wrapped it up and presented it to Dave at Edyn’s dedication. A look of recognition crossed his face and he began to flip through the familiar pages. It seemed somehow fitting that he would read to his daughter from the very same Bible that we used to read to him when he was young.
“One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.” Psalm 145:4
A few weeks later we received a picture of Dave propped up on his bed reading. Although Edyn was still too young to even sit up, let alone grasp a story, she lay beside him “listening” as Dave read her a story from his old Beginner’s Bible.
It made me think of Psalm 145:4 which says, One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.
I am so grateful to God that my children are following Jesus and that I am privileged to witness that legacy being passed on to the next generation.
I testify with John who says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (3 John 1:4).
In case you were wondering, I eventually figured out that the story of Puffing Up Dough is taken from Matthew 13:33, “He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
Written by Lt. Col. Pat LaBossiere
