I can relate to dragonets and the biblical story

   There are days when you get to take an idea from your sixth-grader that is really worthy of developing. Those are good days. I don’t know why they surprise me. It reveals that I am a little egocentric I guess…a little too determined that I will generate the good ideas for others. Time to open your ears and listen Karl.

   Thaddaeus and I were discussing the “story” of the Bible as we waited for our virus isolation virtual youth group to begin. The question sequence we were discussing was this: “The Bible tells a story that I can actually relate to. What characters do you relate to in other (non-biblical) stories? What Bible character do you relate to? What is it about his or her story that is familiar?” That is not the most creative question sequence. That was the part I came up with myself.

   Thad’s answer was that in the Wings of Fire dragon fantasy series there are five young dragons (dragonets) whose purpose in life is to stop a war. That war started long before they were born and their lives were shaped by what happened in the past. It is like that with us when we read the Bible. The story of the past shapes our purpose in life and what we do. It shapes what other people do. It is our story too.

   That answer took all the complexities that I was pondering about how it is difficult for us to get our minds around how the Bible relates to us as “our story” and set them to the side.

    We are not separated from the stories of those who have come before use—sometimes a long time before us. Those stories are vital to our understanding of what our purpose in life is, and of what our challenges are, and of what our resources are, and of what our hope is… I can relate to that.