A Devotion for Storytime

I’m at the point of parenting life when I could recite to you a hundred different stories. At the drop of a hat, I can provide different silly voices for any number of storybook characters or read rhymes by Dr. Seuss to Shel Silverstein without so much as a glance on the page. I possess these unique gifts because of the countless hours I’ve dedicated to the often-thankless craft of book-reading. Our children, cursed by having 2 nerdy, readerly parents, have shelves that overflow with books, new and old, long and short.

But, as many of you have probably experienced, each of my kids have both gone through phases when they wanted to read only ONE book, over and over and over.

For my son, it was “Little Blue Truck,” his chubby toddler fingers pointing to the farm animals on each page and giving the corresponding “MOO! BAAAAA! CLUCK CLUCK!”

For my daughter, it was “The Book with No Pictures.” If you’re familiar with this one, you’re probably not surprised. It forces the parent/reader to make a whole bunch of funny noises and silly statements 😊

The same story, day after day, night after night. For parents, exhausting. For kids, supremely comforting and entertaining.

This habit of my kids and children through the history of time was on my mind as I read about the funeral of the beloved pastor and theologian Eugene Peterson. Peterson, the man behind The Message translation of the Bible (and many other thoughtful books) left a legacy as a pastor and leader known for his deep kindness, wisdom, and courageous leadership.

Which is why everyone was a bit startled (at first) at what his son had to say about him at his funeral. His son Leif, gave the eulogy in which he said that his father had fooled everyone. His dad’s secret? That he had been preaching and teaching and writing the same sermon over and over again, for his entire life.

"It's almost laughable how you fooled them, how for 30 years every week you made them think you were saying something new," he said as part of a poem addressed to his father.

"They thought you were a magician in your long black robe hiding so much in your ample sleeves, always pulling something fresh and making them think it was just for them," he continued.

"They didn't know how simple it all was. They were blind to your secret."

"For 50 years you steal into my room at night and whispered softly to my sleeping head. It's the same message over and over:

“God loves you.

He’s on your side.

He’s coming after you.

He’s relentless.”

For some, telling the same story, year after year day, after day would seem like laziness, or a lack of creativity, or even failure.

But the story of God is one that we can never tell enough. It can be told a thousand different ways, but the heart of the story is always the same: love, affection, mercy, and grace.

The significant thing about the story that Eugene Peterson told is that he didn’t just tell it. He lived it, breathed it, wrote about it, in all ways inhabited it.

He spoke it over his children and his congregation, his readers and his very life.

There are dangers to telling the same story when the story is not God’s. It is damaging and degrading and evil to repeat stories that dehumanize or demean. To speak in ways that foster hate or preach sermons that invalidate people’s humanity or very existence.

But when we tell the story of God’s relentless love over and over again – the people who hear it are changed – and so are we.

And isn’t that the work that we do in disaster recovery?

When we come alongside someone and through our actions and service, we declare: “God loves you. You have not been forgotten.”

When we show up, day after day, to people’s homes and worksites and LTRO meetings, we embody God’s story of relentless, advocating love – love that goes beyond our own needs to tend to the needs of others.

We do this work because, in some way, each of us have heard the good, good story. The best one we’ve ever heard. And we’ve made it our life’s work to tell it again.

So, I’ll read Berenstain Bears and Hop on Pop, over and over again. But the story I want my kids to remember, that I want everyone in my life to remember, is the story that all of you are helping tell all over the state of Florida. In lives transformed and homes restored and people recovered.

When we are done with this recovery effort, it is my great hope that our clients, communities and volunteers can say, “You know, they just told us the same story over and over again!”

God loves you.
He’s on your side.
He’s coming after you.
He’s relentless.

In Christ,

Chaplain Amy