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There is no narrative where there is no context. Context is essential, the foundation which the details of a story rest upon. Without context, a narrative falls apart. Like a ball of yarn dropped to the ground, a story void of context will unravel into a myriad of twists and turns completely lacking cohesive unity. When context cannot be found, a story becomes a collection of separate and disjointed events that seem to have nothing to do with each other. Understanding the context of any story is like reading a compass while on a journey: each event within the narrative points to something, or depending on the story, to someone.
I have never consistently enjoyed reading the Bible. Not like how I have consistently enjoyed sugar cereal or laughing with friends or singing along to a great song while driving in my car on a sunny summer day. Or best of all: laughing with friends while driving in my car as we sing great songs on a sunny summer day...after eating sugar cereal.
One of the problems I’ve had with reading the Bible is that I’ve viewed the Bible as a collection of fragmented stories. The stories in the Bible felt like the eighty-eight keys of a piano that just sat there in black and white. I realized these stories probably all had lessons to be learned, but I hadn’t a clue about how they co-related to each other. There were narratives like the Israelites journey through the wilderness, Jonah in the belly of a whale, or Jesus curing people plagued with disease, but what did they have to do with each other? After all, these stories were bound together in what became one book- the Bible. Did these narratives have a collective theme? Did they share an underlying context?
My dictionary says context is the words that come before or after a word or passage. And if that’s the case, I imagine knowing the introduction and conclusion of any story is important to understanding the events that occur in between- and how all of the events are related. In the Biblical narrative, the story of humanity starts with God’s Creation of humanity and the universe, following with what is known as the "Fall" of humanity, then progressing with God’s actions to Redeem humanity and the rest of his creation to what they were originally intended for. Creation, Fall, Redemption: the three movements of humanities story.
The more I think about these three movements, the more the many narratives of my own life begin to make a little more sense. It provides a context for the events that have shaped who I have become and am becoming. Interestingly, within this three-part context, I find my own narratives share much of the same themes the Biblical narratives do. I relate to Israel wandering in the desert for forty years learning to trust a God who just wanted their best. I relate to Jonah’s apprehension to follow God’s direction and the misery Jonah brings upon himself by running away from God. I relate to the crippled man asking Jesus to heal him. These stories are essentially a shadow of my own personal story, and this is so because we are all human, and so we are all caught up in the same story. It might be true that we cannot escape this grand story we find ourselves in, but we can change it, for redemptive purposes or for not.
Something I appreciate about God is that he is not some Creator who toys with his creation and finds pleasure in wreaking havoc in his world and watching us all go crazy. What I find so comforting is that God is love, and even though humanity brought evil on ourselves, God willingly became human, entering onto our stage to redeem us back to our original identity. To redeem us to the kind of freedom and life he wanted us to enjoy before things went wrong. God made the first move to make things right again.
To bring us back to him.
To bring us home to a place we have never been before.
As C.S. Lewis once said, "How could the initiative lie on my side? If Shakespeare and Hamlet could ever meet, it must be Shakespeare’s doing." God is love, and because of this, he didn’t just sit back and watch the world go to hell after we messed up, in fact he did and is still doing quite the opposite. That explains why Jesus is nearly always found in the gospel narratives involved in some kind of redemptive motion. He raises the dead, heals the sick, defends the widow, and overturns the tables of corruption. The life of Jesus was a symphony of redemption.
I once viewed the narratives of the Bible like the eighty-eight keys on a piano, and I still do. Yet now I view it within the context of God’s desire to redeem his fallen creation back to their original glory- back to himself. The more I think about this context, the more I view the narratives I encounter as if they were piano keys playing together to create major and minor chords that form a brilliant harmony, creating a hauntingly beautiful song. A song in three parts: Creation, Fall and Redemption, with a God who is lovingly intertwined throughout it all.
The story God has written, this amazing song, I believe is music that can find its home in all our hearts. Like a song that makes some sense out of our pain and joy and helps to answer the deepest questions about who we are. Like the music I love to sing while driving in my car on a sunny summer day. Like the songs I’ve read he sings to you and me...
“The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing...
‘At that time I will gather you;
at that time I will bring you home’...
says the LORD.' "
-Zephaniah 3:17,20
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A great insight into the cohesiveness and unity of God's inerrant word. Good job.
Great article, with powerful images. Thanks. You've put into words what I'm trying to do.
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A great insight into the cohesiveness and unity of God's inerrant word. Good job. Posted by Kyle B. | Posted at 05/16/2008 10:39 AM
Great article, with powerful images. Thanks. You've put into words what I'm trying to do. Posted by nora | Posted at 05/23/2008 12:31 PM