Yesterday for our history lesson we learned about the Egyptian pharaohs, mummification, and pyramids. It was a rather intriguing lesson for a five year old.  It included a detailed explanation of how a priest mummifies a body. Mummification is a very long and tedious process.  In the case of the Egyptian Pharaoh Cheops,  each of the his organs such as the heart, liver, intestines, etc. were stored in individual jars with a picture of a Egyptian god for each organ. The Egyptians believed that these gods protect each specific organ. After the Pharaoh was entombed in the pyramid tomb, the Sphinx (lion body with a human head statue) acts as a watchdog to prevent thieves from entering the Pyramid.

While learning this particular lesson, I wondered for a bit my son’s thoughts on whether what the Egyptians believed was true or not. Just as I was pondering on this, my son told me, “Mommy, what the Egyptians believe in is not true because the Sphinx is a fake. He is suppose to protect the Pyramid but he’s not real so the thieves got in and stole all the treasures.” I was glad to know that my son picked up on this obvious point.

My husband has been taking the boys through the Westminster Shorter Catechism for the past six weeks, and just last week the boys learned question #5:

Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one?
A. There is but one only, the living and true God.

Since we had just learned about many gods of the Egyptians, I wanted to know whether my son could relate the history lesson with his ongoing catechism education. I asked him if there was more than one God, and after he answered that there was only one true God, I asked again whether what the Egyptians believed in was true. At this point, he knew the answer already. It was clear that since there is only one true God, no other gods exist and of course the Egyptians were wrong.

One of the joys of homeschooling is opportunities such as this in dialogging with my children about the things we learn and how they relate to the one true God.  Too often, in our secularly-defined education system, academics are divorced from the knowledge of God.  But as we teach our children at home, there are many opportunities to help our children absorb those academic subjects in the context of the most significant reality of God as He has revealed Himself in His Word.