Storytelling

Who doesn't love a good story?  Everyone does.  Right?  

It's why authors write novels.  It's why producers make movies.  It's why audiences buy tickets to Broadway shows.  It's why one generation recounts the past to the next. 

We all love a good story.  We all yearn to hear one.

Going to the library and returning with a huge stack of new books is one of my favorite things to do with my girls.  I love the feeling of having both of them nestled close to me on the couch or bed, eager to hear the first book read aloud to them.  These few, still moments together are a rich treasure--for them and for me.  As I open the cover and turn to read the first page, the magic unfolds as the story begins.  Characters are introduced.  Conflicts are identified.  The plot thickens.  A solution is found. 

Just last weekend, my husband and I went to see a newly-released movie at the theater.  After picking up the girls from their grandparents, they asked to hear all about the film we saw on the way home.  They clung to every word as I began narrating the details of the film.  Immediately, they were drawn into the characters' lives and the action that ensued.  They couldn't help it.  I was retelling a good story.

From the beginning of time, to the end of time, God has been telling us His story.  And He even used common, ordinary men to pen the words.  To record the details for all to read. 

There is a problem.  There is a villain.  There is conflict.  There is a Hero.  There is a resolution.  There is a final outcome.

Not only are we privileged to get to tell of and celebrate God's story, the unparalleled story of Himself, but we also get to be a part of it.  While He is ultimately the Author, the Director and the Producer, He invites us to be a part of the cast through a relationship with Him.  We get to play a role in the grandest and most famous story of all time, with the greatest themes of all time. 

Of love.  Of restoration.  Of redemption. 

As a result, we have the joy and responsibility to invite others to be a part of the production as well.  We can be storytellers, too.  We can conversate and dialogue, sharing with others the greatest story ever written, by the most renown Author of all time.

Listen, dear friends, to God's truth,

bend your ears to what I tell you.
I'm chewing on the morsel of a proverb;
I'll let you in on the sweet old truths,
Stories we heard from our fathers,
counsel we learned at our mother's knee.
We're not keeping this to ourselves,
we're passing it along to the next generation—
God's fame and fortune,
the marvelous things he has done.

Psalm 78:1-4 (The Message)

In our home, I am the calendar keeper.  The list writer.  The note taker.  The journaler.  The photographer.  The scrapbooker.  The blogger.

I am the one who records the events of our family.  It's my role to preserve what we've done, where we've been, what we've seen and experienced.  In fulfilling this, I create tangible reminders of our life as a family. 

I tell the story of us.  God's story through us.  The good and the bad.  The hard and the easy.  The mountains and the valleys.  The obstacles and the victories.

Wherever we are and whatever we're doing, my husband and I are making the effort to be intentional in seizing opportunities to tell our girls the great story of God and His Son, Jesus.  

Who is He?  What has He done for us?  How can we know Him?  How can we live for Him? 

In the words of our pastor spoken last Sunday, 

"Your life is a story. Whose story are you telling?"