For most of us, our earliest childhood memories involve
stories. We are raised with them. 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 but a few. Verses
were put into our minds. Texts came
first and then their meanings. This
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 buttons and can do sophisticated math problems.
I think about biblical stories in a similar fashion. Every time I hear a particular biblical story
my mind drifts back to my first hearing
of that 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 through reflection and an accumulation of life
experiences sewn itself into my life. Some are read with a more serious attitude. Others
make still make my heart skip with joy or triumph. There is greater respect for the magnitude of
what happened in the lives of the people who make up each storyline. 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. Those are 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,
biblical 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.
Randy Daugherty
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