While driving somewhere, Grandma pointed out where she used to live and talked about working on the farm and all sorts of stories about growing up, sometimes repeating the same ones multiple times in one day :) We heard about how she barely had any time or pain in labor giving birth to her sons, and about the time Uncle Jim fell out of the car as a child, and about the Model T FOrd her dad bought her when she was 13 or 14 years old. Bill talked about going hunting with Pappy and how Pappy fell asleep in the tree stand and almost fell out. Don remembered with Grandma about the time he was 2 or 3 and disappeared into the woods in lots of snow and a 100 person search party had to go out and find him.
Lots of these stories I heard over the Christmas weekend intertwined into a common family history that everyone knew and felt connected to in one way or another. To really be a part of the family you've got to know some of these stories, and if you haven't heard them, then someone is eager to tell them to you. I think God used this heavy dose of family stories to emphasize to me how critical story is for people to really be connected and informed and to feel like they are a part of something. I certainly feel like I'm more a part of my wife's family as I become familiar with more of their stories, and certainly get to know them better through that interaction.
Of course my thinking about this leads to the bigger picture which is the importance of God's story. We have to know certain stories if we are to really feel connected to His Kingdom and be an active part in it. If we're trying to connect the dots of how history as well as the present world around us can fit with being a believer and follower Christ, we really need to see how our existence and purpose is connected to that bigger story of God that continues to unfold.
Like I mentioned, I feel more like a part of the family and know them better as a result of spending time with them and hearing their different stories. How much more then, might we feel connected to God's family and know Him better if we spend our time getting together to hear, remember and connect with His story. Think about the fact that most of those stories found in the Bible, which are the foundation of our faith, are available to us because someone kept on telling the stories. To continue to know them and remember them is what grows us and sustains us as children of God, and often times reminds us when we've forgotten. Perhaps the formal worship gathering is the time should most often remember the big picture of creation, the fall, God's interaction with lots of different people, Christ's coming and all that He did (and is doing), His Church. Then our different times of fellowship is when we share stories about how we saw God at work and about the ways He has made Himself know to us in different circumstances. Finally, like my wife's family and their stories, we ought to be eager to tell the stories of God to those who haven't heard them so that they might have a chance to become a part of God's family and have a story of their own about how they came to know the Author of Life.
3 comments:
A most excellent post, Jesse. Thanks for the thought provocation.
The really cool thing is that God's whole 'story' is about Jesus Christ, from beginning to end!
Exactly Tim. Unfortunately I think that many Christians view the OT and NT like separate entities (I know I did to an extent when I was younger), and I think most of us are guilty of reading the bible for facts and then try to make Jesus fit into our lives rather than let the Word read us and draw us out of ourselves and truly find ourselves living as a part of God's story.That's why I think it's so important that our music, prayer, preaching, etc. intentionally paints the big picture from beginning to end and really connects the dots. Otherwise we're potentially leaving people confused and/or making it easier for them to be luke warm (because they aren't feeling like or don't realize that they have a part to play in the Story).
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