BASICS

Being around young grandchildren reminds one of all the challenges of learning to read. When we recently visited our pre-school granddaughter across the state, we quizzed her from a box of phonics cards. As she looked at each simple word, she mouthed the alphabet sounds and finally would say the whole word with a big smile. Her boy cousin, just 4 ½, isn't far behind. He goes to pre-school, but when visiting at our home, sometimes gravitates toward an old classroom phonics chart his grandpa picked up at a yard sale.

I'd never spring on them some of the obtuse “classics” I had to read in college! The “readers” I had in my childhood—like “Look, Spot!” and “Dick sees Jane”--gradually prepared me for the killer classes I had in Humanities and English lit. I remember the quarter I enrolled in Victorian lit. The assigned novels were about 4,567 pages long (just kidding) and the sentences went on for pages (just kidding, again). “Period” literature? I searched for the periods! The sentences were comma-heavy.

When young in faith, I had the same attitude toward parts of the Bible, like the prophets. They weren't easy-reads, like the Gospels. Their tone and historical background were part of the challenge in understanding them. I remember in particular this passage from Isaiah that caused amusement and consternation. What did it possibly mean!

“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little, and there a little.” (28:10)

I learned the prophet was trying to scold his people for being as immature spiritually as barely-weaned babies were, physically. At that time, because of national arrogance, apathy and sin, the people were headed toward destruction and imprisonment by a foreign nation. Despite Isaiah's warnings, they didn't turn back to God.

Yikes! A pretty heavy application point to connect to grammar and phonics! But is it possible that when we get slack about reading and meditating on scripture, we're apt to slip back into the ideas typical of the spiritually immature? Like the (not-in-the-Bible) saying, “God helps those who help themselves.” Wrong. He helps those who admit their helplessness and turn in trust and humility to Him.

Spiritual maturity and Biblical literacy are like good friends. They help each other. But the most important connection point is the Holy Spirit, helping us understand what's being said and how to apply it to our lives. We all start somewhere. Let's hear it for parents who start spiritual training early. At first it may seem as bland as “Spot runs after the ball.” Just think back to when that sentence was hard to read (if you can!) and thank God for the folks who taught you to read--and the others who introduced you to the Greatest Book of all.