For most of us, our earliest childhood memories involved stories. In the context of stories we got our first exposure to biblical concepts like forgiveness, love, truth, God’s sovereignty, peace and calling to mention just a few. Verses were put into our minds. Texts came first and then their meanings. Our experience is sort of like a calculator in the hands of a five year old child. He knows how to turn the thing on, but he hasn’t figured out what all the buttons can do. It’s just a cool piece of technology. By the time he is a teenager he has figured out the buttons and can do sophisticated math problems.
I think about biblical stories in a similar fashion. This week our writers have reminded us of some great stories. Chances are you were familiar with the story line in each one. Every time I hear a story my mind drifts back to my first hearing of the story. I’m not exactly sure why I do that – it just happens. But more to the point, each “hearing” reminds me of the calculator example. The buttons in the story have come to mean so much more to me now than when I first heard them. Stories read differently now. They have taken on a larger dimension. They aren’t read simply to “remember the story line”. Colored pictures and flannel graph boards (remember those days?) have given way to more sophisticated reflection and imagery. The teaching imbedded in the story has overtime and through experiences of one kind or another sewn itself into my life. Some are read with a more serious attitude. Others still blow strong winds of joy and triumph through my heart. I don't think I understand every aspect of some stories, but I know I have a greater respect for the magnitude of what happened in a particular person’s life. I suppose a good way to describe it would be simply that the storylines have become “more human and real”. Perhaps that’s because I have become more aware of my own finitude, weakness, and need for God and His word. Stories are no longer “kids stuff”.
I think that’s why God gave us so many of them. We are children only for a season. As spring follows winter, we grow up and life is there to meet us. “Ready or not…here I come!” I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve fallen headlong into a story of some kind. On occasion they have served as a warm blanket that warmed my spirit or a stick across my spiritual backside or a strong hand that pulled me up and said “keep walking…straight ahead!” One thing is for certain: My life wouldn’t be what it is today without biblical stories.
Perhaps that’s what Paul meant when he wrote these words:
“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
Perseverence. Encouragement. Hope. Thy represent "big buttons" on our spiritual calculator. We do well to spell them as children. Learning what they mean is where the real blessing begins. And, I think stories – reading them, thinking about them, praying over them – are just the kind of travel companions we need as we experience life’s tests. Paul says God gave them to us for our instruction. It is up to us to find them, love them and live in the blessing that they provide.
Father, thank you for giving us stories that show us what it means to walk with you in all kinds of situations. Help us to lay our lives beside the stories of those who have gone before us so that we can know better how to journey with You. Your word is truly a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Amen.
Randy Daugherty
Stephenville, Texas
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