Adoptive mom looks forward to bed time stories

I just realized today that I’m really looking forward to bed time story time.  I remember sitting in the old black chair on the lap of either Mop or Pop and listening to stories and being held nice and tight.  Mom would read books like the Chronicles of Narnia and we would all migrate to the same room to listen and beg her to continue when she reached the end of each chapter.  It wasn’t hard at all to convince her that we needed one more chapter. 

I remember my grandmother reading stories to me while I paced her carpet.  She had a colorful wool rug that had designs and repeating patterns in it.  It was excellent for covering stains and also for pacing during tense parts of a story.  (She read stories to me that I don’t think my mother would have approved of with murder and mayhem.  She and I loved mysteries.)  I walked the circles in the pattern in straight lines, in diagonals, in circles… around and round I paced while she read to me. 

As a teen I read books veraciously.  In middle school I visited the library often and every night devoured an entire book, sometimes reading under my covers with a flashlight until very late in the morning.  I remember how much I enjoyed those escapes into other worlds where I learned lots of things and came across words that I didn’t hear that much in ordinary conversation.  I’m looking forward to sharing those worlds with our children.  And hopefully I can share that desire to learn new things and explore new territory.  Maybe they will share the creativity that springs from a well developed imagination. 

I came across an article about Huckabee and the Biblical references he makes in speeches.  He’ll refer to a few smooth stones and a giant who came tumbling down.  And America is baffled by these mysterious and cryptic references that mean nothing to them since David and Goliath have long ago passed from culture, along with much of Christendom.  It isn’t surprising that people who don't read the text don't know what it says.  But what did surprise me was that those references are equally lost on Church members all across the country.  Is it possible that members of congregations all across America don’t even know the stories of the faith?  I’m not a big Huckabee fan, though I like his flat tax ideas.  But that’s not my point.  I want my kids to know the stories of the Bible.  To understand their heritage even if they can’t share my blood.

It may seem like a tall order, but I’d also like my children to know about my heritage as a descendant of the Anabaptist movement that came about at the time of the Reformation.  I want them to understand what it means to be a cultural ethnic Mennonite or Amish even if I don’t choose to adopt the dress code that some of our families members do.  I’d want them to know about church history and how the early Anabaptists were persecuted, tortured and killed for their personal exploration of scripture and the resulting transformation of their theology -  and their commitment to community.  I’d want them to understand that there are those who can live in culture but do not share its values and interests.  I would want them to know that they come from people who were quiet enough to hear the voice of God.  Even in a world that flees silence and tranquility in favor of flashy bling and loud noise.  I want them to know who they are, and where they came from.  

I doubt I'll cram ALL of that in the heads of those I am given...   But, I am certainly looking forward to bed time stories!