Whose Story

There we were on the floor, the three of us, me and my two boys. They were helping me as I practiced telling the Godly Play lesson on the Parable of the Sower. They couldn’t help themselves. They were eager to know what was inside the golden box I was holding in my hand. The Box contained little artifacts that would help me tell the story, they knew that, they just didn’t know exactly which story would it be. They could contain their curiosity. They were thirsty to know the story, to enter into it, even if just for a brief moment to enter into it. It was as if the world had stopped, nothing else matters but the story. Now I do not want to make my boys sound more pious than they are, they also have the same reaction when I am reading them a book, they just give themselves to the narrative. They live as if it was really possible to cross the threshold of realities. As I come to the “wondering time” in the story (a moment of open questions in which listeners are invited to ponder and explore) I said “I wonder why the sower would scatter seeds in all kind of lands, even though some would not produce fruit…” To this question I received the deepest of answers from my 5 years old son, he said “Papí, the person was throwing the seeds in the other group for the birds to eat, because he wanted them to have food too.” How ‘bout that! Of course, if I had been paying as good attention to the story I would have noticed that too. It makes complete sense that the sower would be sharing the seeds with the birds of the air. After all birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet our heavenly Father feeds them. My sons helped me to move from the point of mastering the story toward a posture of living the story, to letting my perspective and world be changed by the story.

What story is changing your world? What stories are you so curious about that you cannot but help step into it and be transformed by it?


Eliacin