“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Romans 15:4

Everything was set and ready for my author visit the next morning. At least that’s what I thought until I ran through my familiar story using brand new props.

After reciting the first few lines my mind went blank. I started and stumbled again and again like it was the first time I’d ever read the book. Since I was the author, you’d think I’d memorized the words by now, but like any other book read sparingly, I stumbled over the details.  

It’s like that with God’s story too, isn’t it? We think we know His story because we’ve heard it repeatedly, but if we haven’t recently read it, our memory fails us. Oh, we might remember enough to paraphrase scripture; we might quote our favorite verses successfully, but story details blur.

Paul states in Romans 15:4, that the Bible “was written to teach us so that, [through the endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures], we might have hope.” It’s not just a history book filled with exciting details of people’s lives just for entertainment’s sake. Rather, God commanded his words be written down so that we might be encouraged through it and pass God’s story, His hope from generation to generation. 

Now, the next time we’re cuddled up with our little ones reading their favorite storybook let’s remind ourselves to tell them that old, old story (God’s story) so that they too might have hope.