Tuesday, January 1, 2008

More than a Story


The walls in our house are quite bare and drab. In fact, they are in sore need of a thick coat of new paint. But, lacking the funds to paint at the time I decided on an alternative. As I read Bible stories to the kids and practice reciting books of the Bible, instead of putting the visual aids back in the cabinet for the next time, we now post them on the walls as a daily reminder of what we have learned.
The kids love this little twist on Bible story time and enjoy telling curious visitors about the stories. Just the other day our wash lady, who happens to be Muslim, was studying the pictures and talking to our teenage girls about the stories. We told her the version of the stories from the Bible and she told us her understanding of the stories from the Quran.
I was curious about her interpretations and decided to read the accounts in the Quran for myself. I realized that her versions of the stories were not really in the Quran but were simply folklore. Most Muslims do not actually know what is in the Quran, but rather, simply follow tradition. The Quran actually tells Muslims that if they want to know more about these things they should seek out the people of the book (Christians).
As I continue to teach Bible stories to our children, perhaps visitors like our Muslim wash lady will find interest in the beautiful story that unfolds before them on our no longer drab walls.

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