I’ve been thinking about Joshua 4 this week, the twelve stones pulled up from the middle of the Jordan and stacked on the riverbank, not to look nice, but so that someday a kid would point at them and ask what they meant. That was the whole plan from the start. Build something that gets noticed, so the question gets asked, so the story gets told again to whoever asks it.

I didn’t grow up with a lot of markers like that. We went to Mass, but there wasn’t much at home that made a kid stop and ask about anything. No stones, so to speak. I’m trying to change that now, mostly in small ways, lighting a candle on a saint’s feast day, doing something at the table for Advent that isn’t just a countdown calendar, letting the season actually show up in the house instead of staying inside a missal nobody but me ever opens.

It’s not really about the decorations. It’s about leaving something out in the open that a kid eventually notices and asks about, so I get the chance to answer. That’s been the thread running through this week, leading my family at home instead of handing the job off to someone else. The stones were never really the point. The conversation they started was.

Today’s Bible Study

Exodus 12 works the same way, long before Joshua gets to the Jordan. God tells the Israelites that when their children ask what the Passover service means, they’re supposed to have an answer ready, the story of the Lord sparing their houses in Egypt while judgment passed over everyone else’s. The ritual wasn’t only for God’s benefit. It was built so a child would have something to ask about, and a parent would have something true to say back. Leading a family spiritually isn’t mainly about getting the theology right. It’s about making sure something gets left out in the open long enough for a kid to notice it and ask.

Recommended Reading

I checked the Resources page again before writing this. It still only lists The St. Paul Center and the Patron Saints list, neither a fit for this specific idea, so I’m recommending Kendra Tierney’s The Catholic All Year Compendium instead, a practical, lived in guide to marking the liturgical year at home, exactly the kind of stone I’m trying to leave for my own kids to ask about.