I heard that our church was going to start a series on the book of Jonah, so we started reading together as a family. First of all, this little book is the shortest in the Old Testament. I'm sort of wondering how many Sundays our pastor will be preaching on it. But it IS packed full of things to talk about.
The kids and I have taken a few days on it. Shelly and Archer know the basic story, of course, and they know all the right answers. "Jonah didn't obey. He ran away from God. That was bad." But I often find myself stopping after just a sentence or two to discuss the meanings of words, and how someone might have felt, or what something looked like. Sometimes things get quite animated. He was inside a FISH! What do you think that smelled like? "EWWW!!" they cry and hide their faces.
We ended our first day of discussion with Jonah's prayer. Jonah praises God for bringing him up from certain death. We talked about praising God, even when circumstances seem like they couldn't get any worse. Jonah was in the belly of a fish. But he praised God.
Today at lunch we finished the story, and this is what the kids haven't heard as often. That God had compassion on the city of Ninevah and gave those people another chance. They repented, "he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened." But this is where the story turns south, not a happy ending with Ninevah loving God. A disappointing ending with Jonah angry at God for his compassion. So angry that he proclaimed he is "angry enough to die." WHOA! This kind of anger, I think I've seen it on display in my own home. Just last night, in fact, over something really trivial. Human emotions can be so strong, and unpredictable. But Jonah, I think he believed he was justified in his anger.Did that city REALLY deserve forgiveness? I tried to explain to the kids the final words of the book, "Should I not be concerned about that great city?" as God asked Jonah an unanswered question. We don't hear Jonah's answer. Maybe he stomped off to his room and slamed the door and sulked for a few hours, or days. We don't know. But we do see God's compassion.
Before bedtime tonight, we went back to 4:2 and read. "I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity." I asked the kids to think about what that verse taught us about God. They told me their favorite parts. Shelly, "abounding in love." Archer, "relents from sending calamity." And me, "slow to anger." I need that reminder, to be slow to anger. And the kids' answers didn't surprise me either. Shelly is always proclaiming love, drawing hearts and writing love notes to us. Archer talked to me as I tucked him in about a recent tragedy that's happened in a city nearby, and he asked me if God had relented from sending a calamity, by sending in help to prevent a worse tragedy. I agreed with him, the Lord had saved that community from worse.
Sometimes I wonder if they're really getting it, all this vague talk about praising God even in hard times, when they haven't been faced with truly hard times. Discussions about pride and compassion in the abstract. But then, out of the blue, they ask a little question, or make a comment, and I'm surprised at the connections they have made. While we've been discussing the news headlines, Archer's connected it with the destruction the Lord could send. Or prevent. And I can see that the truth is making its way into his heart, and I am thrilled and intimidated at the same time. And that story, of our family leaning into God's truth and word, is to be continued.
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