Learning- A Guide on Day Three in the Wilderness

When Jesus was in the wilderness, being tempted by Satan he quoted Deuteronomy 6 twice and Deuteronomy 8 once. "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." "You shall worship the Lord your God and serve only him." "Man cannot live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." I never stopped to think where Jesus learned these lessons of scripture until I realized this week that Deuteronomy 6 is where the Shema states "Hear O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you this day in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise." I am guessing that the words of Deuteronomy are words that Joseph and Mary told Jesus as Jesus walked to the well with Mary or hung out at the carpenters shop with Joseph learning a trade. They were part of the everyday life of Jesus family and they were the words that he realied upon to deal with the temptations in the wilderness of life.

These words came to life as we were wandering around the first Berg Nanstein Castle in Landstuhl with our grandchildren in Germany. It was a small castle but because they had been there before they were ours guides. They showed us the "dungeon", the "look out tower" and all along the way we were swordfighting and imagining what life would have been like back then. They were our guides through this castle. We entered into their world to understand their castle and in the process it became our castle. We fell in love with it in part because we caught the love that they had.

So it is with our faith journey. We can't force anyone to see or feel anything that isn't there for them but we can draw alongside each other as guides. We can share what we know and what we feel and the excitement that is in our hearts and minds and it is contageous. And when we share our faith with our children and grandchildren as we walk by the way, when we rise and when we lie down, it becomes a faith and love we hold together.