Answering Questions with Stories: Powerful Truth
- Jesus often taught through stories, answering questions in ways that shape what we believe and how we live.
- Family narratives form identity, and Scripture serves as God’s “family album” that helps us internalize Christlike values.
- True biblical stories guide trust, turning us from disillusioning idols toward the God who has spoken and acted in history.
Isn’t it fascinating how often Jesus answered questions by telling stories? 
Children love to ask questions, and how we answer their questions does much more than just give them basic information. We’re also communicating family values and helping orient them to reality. We share with them who we are, and we communicate our family culture. One of the most powerful protections for children against bad influences is when we internalize our family culture to the point where the answer to bad influences is simply, “That’s just not who we are.”
What we do for our children through family stories, our forever Father does for us through our family album, the Bible. Through the rehearsal of our family stories, especially our grand metanarrative, our questions are answered in such a way that we just catch—we just take on—the culture of Christ. The stories create a sense in us of what is right and wrong and how we live. They mold our identities in such a way that we come to just know what to do.
“Isn’t it fascinating how often Jesus answered questions by telling stories?”
In our book The Grand Metanarrative, we look at some of the major questions in life, such as, “Who is God, and can I trust Him?” The idols people of the world trust and follow lead them to disillusionment. Scripture’s response to this disillusionment is that we pursue God, who is here with us, who has spoken, and who has acted in history. He exists, and we learn who He is not by philosophizing our way to Him, but by loving Him as He has revealed Himself through the stories of Scripture. And it’s through these true stories that we learn, yes, we can trust and follow God on the journey to our heart’s true home.
