Backpacks, Bus Rides, and
the Greatest Commandment
The calendars have flipped. New backpacks sit by the door. Supply lists are checked off. Some of you are already rehearsing the morning drop-off line in your mind. Others are packing boxes for a dorm room. Whether you are sending a kindergartner or a college student, this is a season full of excitement, logistics, and more than a little nervous energy.
This Sunday we open God’s Word to a passage written for just such a moment. In Deuteronomy 6:4–9, Moses stands with Israel on the edge of a new chapter in their national life. The wilderness is behind them. Cities, fields, and daily routines lie ahead. The question hanging over the people is simple and urgent: Will the next generation know the Lord?
Moses answers with the words that became Israel’s daily confession—the Shema:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
Notice the setting. God does not restrict the teaching of His Word to formal classes or special occasions. He places it right in the middle of ordinary life—sitting at home, walking along the road, lying down, getting up. In other words, the carpool, the breakfast table, the bedtime conversation, the morning rush. The very rhythms that will soon fill our days with school schedules are the same rhythms God claims for discipleship.
This is not a call to add one more program to an already crowded calendar. It is a call to let the love of the one true God shape the atmosphere of our homes as the school year begins. Grades matter. Friendships matter. Safety matters. But the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Everything else is secondary.
Parents, grandparents, and students of every age are invited to hear this word together. We will also look ahead to next week’s special Back-to-School Outreach Barbecue—an opportunity for our church family to open the “gates” and invite neighbors and classmates into the same life-giving truth.
Come this Sunday ready to listen. Come ready to consider what it means to impress the commandments of God on the next generation in the ordinary moments of a new school year. The backpacks will be filled with pencils and notebooks. The more important question is whether our hearts—and the hearts of our children—will be filled with the Word of the living God.
Join us as we open Deuteronomy 6 together.
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