Telling Our Story

​In Deuteronomy 6:20-22, Moses says to the people of God, "When your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God has commanded you?' then you shall say to your son: 'We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and the LORD showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household” (NKJV). 

The people of God were to transmit their own history and write their own narrative.  They were to share their history and heritage with their children.  This was to be done with a view towards the work of God in the lives of His people. 

Textbooks, politicians, and social pundits often attempt to rewrite history.  They attempt to soften the realities of the egregious atrocities of the past by reframing them, renaming them, or omitting them from history books.  They make reluctant participants heroes, and vilify those who speak truth to power. 

God’s word encourages us, yea, commands us to tell our children our story.  We cannot depend on the media or the public education system to tell our story.  We have to take on the responsibility of sharing our history with our children.  In telling our history, we are to tell of the signs and wonders performed by the God of History.  Our story is part of a much larger narrative.  Our history did not begin with the middle passage and slavery in America.  It did not begin with the Civil War.  Our history is deeper than segregation and Jim Crowism.  Our story includes our race and ethnicity background, yet is much more than those. 

​Our history, our story begins before the foundation of the world.  Our story is part of what God has been doing in the world since before the world began.  Our children need to know our history.  They need to know how God is working, even in our darkest hour.  Next week we plan to explore how to tell your history to your children.