By God's grace I have tried to teach my grandchildren a Bible story each weekend they are here with me. We started doing this last fall (2013) without any real plan in mind. But as we approached Christmas 2013, I spent several weeks presenting the Christmas story to the children. After the holidays had passed, we went on and studied the life of Jesus, highlighting some of the better-known stories. We learned SO much! But then Easter came and we spent many many weeks getting ready for it! We did the story of Jesus raising Lazarus back to life and then went right through the week of Christ's passion to the resurrection! And then naturally, we followed up with His ascension back to His Father.
But then the kiddos asked … what next, Grandma? What shall we study next? (This question from three children who claim they do NOT like school!)
So … it seemed logical (and necessary!) to study what DID happen next! What happened AFTER Jesus returned to His Father?
Which led us to the ENTIRE book of Acts, a wonderful piece of inspired history of the early Church! What great stories are there! We learned so much together!
This week was a final story in Acts, and we covered the last two chapters together: 27 and 28! Our usual pattern is that I read part of the Bible account, add information that I have studied, show them a map of Paul's journeys … WHILE the kiddos are coloring pictures about the very story we are studying. This has really been fun and a great way to keep three rather hyperactive children somewhat with me as I try to teach them these amazing stories! Plus, I get rather animated during story time and since these children love me to pieces and I love them completely … they don't mind if I get a little crazy-excited about what I am teaching! We ask all kinds of questions … and we search for answers too!
This week, though, was SUCH an exciting adventure story that we decided to get our LEGO guys and other props out to help us visualize the story!
The story starts out in Jerusalem with Paul appealing to Caesar (whom we think at that time was NERO), which was basically Paul giving himself a death sentence. But Paul's appeal is accepted and he is taken away to get on a boat headed for Rome. Julius, a Roman centurion, is sent with him to guard him on the journey. We learned that there were 276 passengers on this boat to Rome; but since we don't have that many LEGO guys, we just did the best we could with what we had. But we were at least able to designate Paul, Julius, the soldiers, the captain of the ship, some other prisoners, and also the island people (Publius included).
The grandchildren all love LEGOS, so trust me … they were completely into this! I kept sending them back into the playroom to "fetch" other characters and equipment for our story. It was such a blast to see how excited they were!
Matthew was busy (bless his heart) constructing Origami FISH for the ocean … didn't he do such a nice job?
Do you remember the story? How it was already autumn when they set sail and how Paul had advised Julius to "winter" on one of the islands on the way because Paul knew they were going to run into rough weather. But Julius instead listened to the captain of the ship who wanted to get his "cargo" to Rome before winter.
Paul was completely correct too! They hadn't gone very far when a hurricane force wind caught the ship and took it out to sea. The storm was so violent that for three days they couldn't tell if it was day or night because of the darkness and violence of the storm.
After many long days and nights, the passengers were beginning to give up hope. But the Bible says that an angel of God visited Paul and told him that no one on the ship would die, that the ship would be destroyed, but that none of the people would die on the journey! So Paul told the people what God had told him and he also encouraged them to eat something, broke bread, prayed in front of all of the people, and they ate and were encouraged.
And … everything happened exactly as God said it would. God allowed the wind to blow them to the island of Malta and in the morning light, they could see that there was a sandy bay where they could come ashore … except that the ship hit a sandbar, ran aground and the boat split apart! The soldiers were going to kill the prisoners, but Julius intervened and everyone made it to shore!
The Bible says that the island people were friendly, greeted all of the soaking wet, hungry sailors, and made a big bonfire to warm them!
Paul was helping gather firewood and as he put his wood on the fire, a viper latched on to his arm and would NOT let him go!
The island people thought Paul was cursed by "the gods" because he had survived the hurricane, the shipwreck, and the raging sea only to come ashore and be killed by a snake! However, Paul was not harmed by the snake--not one little bit! His arm didn't swell up! He did not drop dead! Well, this was certainly miraculous. The island people then concluded that Paul must BE a god! We learned that one of the island people, an official by the name of Publius, invited everyone to his house and fed everyone for three days. His father had a fever and dysentery and was near death. Publius asked Paul to come and help his father--and he was completely healed!
We also learned that Paul then stayed on the island of Malta for three more months until Publius had procured a boat from Alexandria that was passing through on its way to Rome. Publius supplied all kinds of necessary supplies for the sailors' journey to Rome and then they were on their way. We then learned that Paul arrived in Rome, where he lived under house arrest for the next two years. He was able to tell many people the GREAT NEWS that Jesus had come to rescue them from sin and darkness, and many people came to believe in Jesus.
I wonder … did Paul get to tell Nero (Caesar) about the love of Jesus too? I did a little research about Rome at that time and read about the fire in Rome in the year 64 AD and the subsequent expulsion and persecution of the Christians, who were blamed for the fire. In my reading, many people seem to believe that Nero started the fire himself … for his own amusement … and then blamed it on the Christians. In any event, it was dangerous to be associated with Christianity at that time and many believers hid in caves and fled the country to escape death. Sadly, many thousands were murdered under Nero's reign.
Tradition says that our dear apostle Paul was beheaded on a road about three miles outside of Rome. But Paul wrote to Timothy before he died and told Timothy that he knew his life was near its end: "As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me--the crown of righteousness that the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that great day of his return." (2 Timothy 4:6-8 NLT). Paul DID fight a good fight of faith, didn't he? How wonderful to know that Paul received THE PRIZE!
When our story was finished, Matthew looked at me and said: "Is this our last story about Paul?!" And his face was SO sad!
I am NOT a teacher. But I will say … I LOVE TEACHING Bible stories to my grandchildren. I love studying throughout the week, trying to discover what it is that God would want me to learn so that I can explain it to the kids. I have loved this study in Acts and cherish what we have learned together!
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