We are studying through Romans as a family during our family devotions and it has been rather challenging because of the style of writing. It’s harder to explain to children truths of the Bible when it is not in narrative form. As I read through Romans 1:18-32, I thought, “now how in the world am I going to communicate this truth to my children?” I started to isolate the main point of the passage and as I began to think about it, it hit me. Paul is talking about the wrath of God. Then he describes in every day life how the wrath of God has manifested itself in the consequences of man’s sin. As man continues on his sin the wrath of God is being revealed as man spirals downward towards the depraved condition of his heart. That was what I wanted to teach my children. Now if my children are like most children, they love stories. In fact every time we are in the car driving across town or on a long family trip, they ask at some point “Daddy, can you tell us a story?” How would I tell my children about God’s wrath in story form?
I developed this story about a little girl named Sarah and we charted the course of her life from the age of 3 all the way to her mid twenties. At the age of 3 Sarah started a pattern of deceiving here parents with one small lie after another. By the time she was 25 her whole life revolved around deceiving family and friends. The sad part about it was that Sarah’s heart was so hard she wasn’t even bothered by the fact that she left a wake of people in pain because of her consistent lying. The story went on for about 15 minutes. As the story unfolded I watched my children’s eyes get wider and wider and wider as they saw the ugliness of a hardened heart towards God. Then I told them that this is an example of God’s wrath being poured out on Sarah. God was allowing her to continue on her sin and experience all the consequences of her sin to show His hatred towards sin.
This story provided an opportunity to once again plead with my children to respond to the good news of the gospel. Christ experienced the full weight of God’s anger on the cross because he loved us. I reminded them that God does not want us to live a life that is hard and rebellious towards him. He wants us to live a life that is dependent on His grace alone. He wants us each day to be reminded of how much we deserve his anger and yet He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve. He showers us with His grace, mercy, and compassion through the cross of Christ
Afterwards we took the time to give praise to God for his grace and mercy.
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