Written by Jonathan Melton
Psalm 78:4 (NRSV) We will recount to generations to come the praiseworthy deeds and the power of the LORD, and the wonderful works he has done.
My parents had one rule about Halloween costumes: They had to come from the Bible. I don’t think my parents were prudes—God knows there are plenty of terrifying images found in the Bible. My parents were attempting to ground our imaginations in scriptural realities and deep truths. They wanted us to understand that the stories of the people of God were just the same as our own.
The Book of Common Prayer expresses a similar attempt to ground our hearts in the goodness and wideness of God’s mercy. In many collects, we ask God for all sorts of things, with the proviso that what we ask for comes out of reflection on what God has done before in scripture. “O God, who did this, do that…” So, when I tell my own children the glorious deeds of the Lord, I am teaching them how to pray.
When you sing the songs of the saints of God in your own life, how do you remember their lives and God’s goodness? How do you tell their stories to the world, grounding your own version of the gospel in scriptural realities and in the deep soil of your heart?
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