As I was preparing supper Sunday\u00a0night, the electricity suddenly went out on us. \u00a0There was no storm and the neighbors’ electricity was still on, so\u00a0it was a bit of a mystery why we had lost power. \u00a0It was quickly growing dark, and so I sent the boys to take a shower while I finished dinner.<\/p>\n
Our original plan was to eat supper while we watched the first part of the Packer game\u00a0before the boys went to bed. \u00a0However, it looked like our plan was changing! \u00a0Right when the Packer game was to start, Nils went with our landlord to the electric company to see if\u00a0we could get the electricity back on that night. \u00a0By this time it was all dark outside and inside the house, and so the boys and I sat down on the couch with a few candles lit, and I asked if they wanted me to tell them a story, to which they responded with a hearty yes!<\/p>\n
Normally, I would tell them a story from my childhood, but since I had just taken a workshop on telling faithful Bible stories orally, I decided to tell them the story that we had practiced in the workshop, which is also one of my favorites from the gospels – The Samaritan Woman’s encounter with Jesus at the well. \u00a0I did my best to remember all the details of the story, without adding my own explanation, and as I got closer and closer to the part where the woman is about to discover that she is talking with the Messiah, Lucas and Mat\u00edas were getting so excited! \u00a0Lucas was interrupting me saying, “Mommy, she’s going to find out it is Jesus”! \u00a0And, the look on his face as he said that brought so much joy and excitement to my heart as well, as I imagined this woman being surprised to find out the man she was talking to is the promised\u00a0Messiah that everyone had talked about.<\/p>\n
After I told the story we talked more about how Jesus had brought healing to this woman in so many ways – healing from all the hurt of her past relationships, healing and an open door for her to worship God in Spirit and in Truth, healing \u00a0in her relationships with the people from her village who had rejected her as a horrible sinner. \u00a0And Lucas cried out at the end, “Mommy, she was a missionary just like us”!<\/p>\n
The boys asked me to tell them more stories, and after telling them two more from the gospels, Lucas said he wanted to tell one, and so he told us the story of the feeding of the 5,000. \u00a0Just as Mat\u00edas was about to tell the story of Noah and the Ark, the lights came back on and everyone shouted, “We can still see part of the game!”, which is what we did.<\/p>\n
However, like Mary, I pondered\u00a0in my heart that one hour of darkness, and was so thankful for that moment of sharing God’s story with one another. \u00a0I had been feeling guilty lately because I hadn’t been spending as much time as I used to with the boys reading the Bible and praying, due to extra ministry commitments. \u00a0This time was a gift given from my loving Father\u00a0to encourage me as a mother, because He\u00a0knows my heart and desire to do my best in raising my boys to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. \u00a0I pray that God will continue to surprise us with moments like this one and that we will make more time for storytelling and not have to wait for another power-outage.<\/p>\n