Once Upon a Time

  “Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.” John 21:25

  I remember as a child struggling to grasp the difference between a biography and an autobiography. The first being a true story about someone else’s life, the second being the true story of the author’s own life. During yesterday’s teaching, I realized how tightly the two are intertwined. Every autobiography contains the stories of others’ lives.

  Every biography contains a piece of the author. The story they are sharing about whoever can be influenced by the author’s own perspectives, opinions and experiences. Portrait artists are the same because when they draw someone, they can’t help but include some element of the face they are most familiar with: their own.

  And a hint of a memory…was it a police officer saying, “The facts, ma’am; just the facts”? Is this from an old TV show? Oh, yah, a rumpled and misleadingly inept Columbo, private eye, who always solved the crime.

 

  I think I finally understand what faith is exactly. It is my story intertwined with Jesus’ story…or perhaps it’s better to say it the other way around: Jesus’ story of His life, death and life is permanently (that’s the faith part) intertwined with my own.

  Faith believes Jesus is an integral, foundational, part of my existence because He is the Author and Finisher of what that existence, my life, looks like. He is unchanging so I may change because there is only one of us who needs to change!

  (Smile.)

  The truth of who He is has been captured in the biographies of the first four books of the New Testament. There are some differences because each of the Books reveals different attributes of Jesus and His Message. Nevertheless, the fundamental truth remains no matter how the authors’ perspectives on the narrative determined what they have recorded. Clearly, because of the similarities, God was involved in every written word. (Just the facts, fellahs, just the facts. Leave the rest to Me.)

  I am left pondering on the uncountable stories that have been “written” ever since John recorded these final prophetic words: the only sentence in his Gospel with the word “I”. They are the only hint at how the life of Jesus had touched his own; the only glimpse of his awe and wonder at the immensity of God’s ability and willingness, through His Son, to give and continue giving each of us a redemption story of our own. 

  Thank You, Lord, for giving us the Bible. Thank You, for all the people who have influenced my life, whose stories weave themselves into the pages of my own book. I especially thank You for Jesus. AMEN!