Gripping stories touch and stick
STORY POWER
When viewing vintage cars, we are attracted by models we or our parents owned. Our experience revives our memory, and nostalgic feelings arise as if we’ve met an old friend.
Pavlov’s experiments regarding conditioning became famous. When feeding dogs, he rang a bell. Later, the dogs salivated when the bell rang without food. Maybe the saying “it rings a bell” refers to this research.
Dramatized Bible stories may ring a bell in the sub-conscience of former believers. As Pavlov’s dogs associated the bell with food, so faith stragglers may associate Bible stories with former good times in their lives.
It tells us that we should do our very best with Sunday school students. We should also capitalize on the memories of adults by telling stories to illustrate messages. A good story from inside or outside the Bible is remembered with the truth it embodies. When we address the “child” in adults, we help their memories. We depend mainly on vision and hearing, spawning the success of audio-visual media. One picture says more than thousands of words.
Most overhead projectors gather dust in store rooms while computer presentations rule the day. I think we have underestimated the versatility of the overhead projector. It is ideal for pointing, making instant diagrams, writing on and masking off certain parts — features that presentation programs are less efficient in.
And what happened to the flannel board and colour slides? Children have vivid imaginations — the paper figures on the board easily become real people to them. When the children help to put the figures on the board, they feel involved. Their drawings can be incorporated into the visualized story.
Jesus did not have modern equipment to illustrate his stories. He used word-pictures to help people see the story by imagining it. We can picture the farmer sowing the seed, some of it landing on the hard road, some at rocky places, some among weeds, and some on good soil. As the soil determines the growth of the seed, so our attitude impacts the word of God falling in our hearts.
We can follow the prodigal son when he leaves his father and starts spending in the foreign land with fairweather friends. We can see him running out of money, searching for work, herding pigs and wishing he could eat some of their feed. We feel with him when the reality of his mistakes dawns on him, and he decides to return with regrets and shame to his father. We get a lump in the throat when we put ourselves in his place: being welcomed by the forgiving father, who organizes a welcome party while his older brother refuses to believe his change of heart.
Jacob Van Zyl of Lethbridge is a retired counsellor and the author of several faith-based books.