Why tell Bible stories?

“My child loves Jesus and loves to hear stories about Jesus, but he does not cooperate at Sunday School.” This was written on the sign-up form for summer Bible camp—next to my child’s name. To this day, he does not willingly participate in games, songs, or crafts. But I have one consolation. He loves to hear Bible stories and still brings me his children’s Bible each night to read together. He engages with the stories and asks thoughtful questions. It’s a comfort to me because I know that the little stories of the Bible and the big story of God and his people are the most important information he could ever hear.

It might be tempting to keep giving kids the bare facts of the gospel to try to get them over the line into the kingdom more quickly. It might be reassuring to our system-oriented adult brains to summarise all the doctrine we want kids to know and drill it until they can repeat it verbatim.

But what our kids need to know is the person Jesus Christ—as revealed throughout all of scripture—through stories that anticipate him, stories he told, and stories that unpack what it all means. I want kids to know Jesus, and that’s why, at home and at church, I tell Bible stories.

God speaks through stories

Story is the major vehicle God uses to teach throughout the Bible. Even the letters and wisdom literature are woven through with narrative. God knows and understands the brains he has given us, and those brains learn well through stories. He gives us many stories; they are mysterious, puzzling, vivid, humourous, creative, and captivating. This is how he reveals himself.

Children learn through stories

Children don’t learn abstract thought until they reach puberty. Their world stays in the concrete until that time, and for the most part, they lack the ability to take an abstract idea and apply it elsewhere. It is a kindness to give them stories that make the invisible God both visible and concrete.

Avoid double translation

When learning language, we were taught to avoid double translation. Rather than learning that りんご (ringo)＝apple＝the sweet red fruit we eat, you should go straight from りんご to the fruit that’s in your hand. That way, our brain makes the connection efficiently without translating.

In the same way, we want to teach kids efficiently. For example, we may want to teach kids about redemption. We may explain about buying something back. We may tell the story of Ruth and the sacrificial way Boaz stepped in, endangering his own legacy so that Ruth’s future could be secure and her family restored to Israel. But this is double translation. Simply set out with the goal of teaching the story of Ruth. Then kids will have a beautiful, concrete picture of redemption that, once they are old enough, they can overlay on the word “redemption.” You may or may not use the word “redemption” in your lesson, but you will set kids up to understand what it means in time.

Avoid rote memorization

While leading a small group of kids, my husband asked, “What is sin?” One child responded with a word-for-word quote from the catechism. Curious, my husband asked her what it meant. “I don’t know,” she replied. He explained simply for the group. We appreciate that, God willing, this girl will grow into an understanding of the words she has memorised. But we are all too aware of how children can learn to look and sound Christian while their hearts remain far from the Lord. The Bible itself warns us that rote learning can become a substitute for real spiritual formation.

I can’t guarantee that Bible stories will bring your kids to spiritual maturity. But I believe that we need to give our kids a love for God’s Word, teaching them to hear it, puzzle over it, laugh when it’s funny, and cry when it’s sad. As they do, they can begin putting all the pieces together like a puzzle and working out where they fit in the grand narrative that God is still at work in.

It is my hope and prayer that in sharing Bible stories with kids, they can stay mesmerised by the God who reveals himself through stories.

Kids love Bible stories

At church, we help out with a kids’ English class that always includes a Bible time in Japanese. One time, a guest read to the kids from the Jesus Storybook Bible the story of Noah in English with translation. I quietly rolled my eyes, wondering why couldn’t he have prepared something more interesting and shorter. But when he finished, an excited little girl said, “Hey, that’s not the end! That book is really thick. There are heaps more stories in there. Read more!” We are regularly thrilled that kids love English class and not for the candy, games, teachers, or even for the English itself—they love hearing Bible stories.

God has spoken to us, his children, through stories. We speak to children through stories too. In knowing these stories, we know the God who spoke them and can come to rightly worship him.

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