As I was walking in the park with my roommate, I overheard a little girl ask the woman next to her, “So I thought while we were walking we could talk.”
“Okay,” the woman said, “what do you want to talk about?”
The little girl paused. And we walked in a different direction. My roommate and I spent ten minutes discussing scenarios of who the girl was, who the woman was, and what the girl’s important discussion had been.
We all love a good story. And Jesus knew that. In His parables, there are characters you can relate to, familiar from everyday life. And yet there is more in the story, a deeper meaning. Can you see it? In Matthew 13, Jesus said,
“This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (13).
Are you looking for entertainment or more than a story?
Jesus was not the only one to use stories. The Bible is full of metaphors, word parables, and stories with more layers than the cakes at Papa Haydn’s. Just think what would happen if Jesus had written a math book (all the word problems). In fact, the whole Bible is a series of stories, and there is a deeper meaning woven through them. It is deep enough that people study the Bible their whole lives and can be shocked by something new that they have never seen before. But the core of the story is simple enough to be told in a few minutes.
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Corinthians 15).
And He is coming again. How will you respond?
God, thank You for stories, and how each person has their own story. It is amazing to sit down and hear a sampling of the unique story each person owns. Thank You for the stories in the Bible that record how You love us and have sought to save us from the beginning of the world. God, please help me see how the story of Your love plays out in my life, and share the story with others. Amen.
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