Every family has practices nobody remembers starting. Then a certain generation asks the question, ‘Why?’
God doesn’t just tell Israel to remember the exodus; he tells them to expect a question about it.
“In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’ 16 And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.” (Exodus 13 v 14-16)
The hope is that future generations will ask – ‘why do we do what we do?’
Our prayer is that this young generation will be inquisitive about the faith.
The question “what does this mean?” doesn’t threaten the story, but it’s the story’s whole purpose. If our children, or the people we lead, never ask why we do what we do, it may be because the practice itself has stopped being visible enough to provoke the question.
Where in your life is the story still visible enough to be asked about?
Missions Paul 