ROOTED - Friday, February 13, 2026
8 See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’
Reflection: Recounting God Stories
Written By: Pastor Jesse Caro
If you would allow me to make a blanket observation… one that is my most humble opinion: many Christian families do a poor job incorporating God into their lives. By this I mean that (in my experience observing Christian families in pastoral counseling) many parents do not interpret their lives, and what happens to them and their children, through a lens of God being intimately involved. Jesus is part of their family’s lives (as far as their kids can tell) only on Sunday for a few hours, and possibly during a dinner prayer. I hope that is not coming off as harsh, but I am speaking here merely from my pastoral experience.
What we might learn from the first few chapters of Deuteronomy is that the Children of Israel lived with spiritual lenses in which life was interpreted as a series of God ordained and soaked events. When they defeated an enemy they (I am certain) did not see hordes of angels going before them to battle. Yet they interpreted the events with verbiage like this: “God gave us the victory “or “God delivered us.” And parents retold these stories as such. Children therefore grew to see God’s hand in mundane issues of life (manna, quail, water), as well as the “supernatural” events (Red Sea, pillars of fire). Deuteronomy is telling stories that many of the people hearing did not witness, but the God stories (i.e., framing stories with God in mind) were important.
We do not, as Christians, live lives with Jesus sprinkled in. No! God is sovereign over our lives in everyday, mundane, and boring ways. But it is up to us to see it and recount this to our children in God-terms. When something good happens in our household, you can rest assured the way it is recounted is, “Isn’t God good? Look at what happened…!” I encourage you to see God working in your life. Don’t chalk it up to coincidence. Frame your conversation and stories accounting for God’s hand in it.
Prayer
Lord, help us to be faithful in seeing you in our daily life and telling of the goodness of God to those who are younger.