Following the Creator’s Design
It was the beginning of class, and we were waiting. The teacher had planned to entertain the squirming sea of freshmen with a video, but the VHS tape didn’t seem to be working. The teacher, a self confessed non-technical person, requested assistance. She asked that we search to find the starting place of the video. We tried for a few minutes and weren’t having any luck, and then she asked the question that shocked me like no other I’ve received from a teacher. No, it wasn’t, “Where is your homework?” Instead she asked, “Could you flip the tape over and search the other side?”
When the question landed on me, I had to slowly turn to see if she was smiling, maybe being sarcastic. But there was no hint of humor on her face. I mumbled something awkward like, “I don’t think it’s on here…” and the class moved on to the next thing she had planned. I didn’t want to have to say out loud, “A VHS tape doesn’t work that way. That’s not how the creator designed it.”
Family Commitment vs. Baby Dedication
Most things in life have a design behind them, a way they are meant to work best. This past Sunday we saw a picture of God’s design at work in our church with our Family Commitment ceremony. On stage stood eight families who had all come to commit to raise their children to know Christ and follow Him. We call it a “Family Commitment Ceremony,” rather than a “Baby Dedication,” because of our understanding of the Gospel. Little children do not yet have the capacity to commit to following Christ, and it’s not our decision to make for them. Our job as parents, and as a church, is to do our best to create the environment where that child can come to know Christ at a young age and walk faithfully with Him for a lifetime. Our job is to commit to doing all we can to pass on the faith that has been handed down to us to the next generation.
God’s Design for Evangelism
Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train a child up in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.” This is not an absolute promise, but a proverb, meaning, a general rule of thumb. Our hope and prayer is that our children who are raised in the faith will come to know Christ and also pass on their faith to the next generation. This is God’s original design for evangelism. Adam and Eve were entrusted with the knowledge of God and were to pass that faith on to their children, and their children’s children, and so on.
Tools for passing on our faith to our Children
On Sunday we gave a resource to parents to help them toward this end. It’s a Children’s Bible called The Big Picture Story Bible. This Bible takes some of the most well known stories of the Bible and weaves them together to show how Jesus is the central plot and storyline of Scripture. It’s a powerful resource that I think many parents find insightful as well!
Our church is passionate about missions and evangelism, we care deeply about reaching the lost, and the front lines of evangelism start in our own homes. May God give us all wisdom as we seek to pass on the Gospel to the next generation, whether that’s in your own home, or within the church, or in our communities all over Southwest Louisville!