Telling stories

"The disciples came up and asked (Jesus), "Why do you tell stories?" He replied, "You've been given insight into God's kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn't been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That's why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight." Matt. 13:10-13 The Message

This morning, Mike told the story of the Bible from Creation--Genesis to Revelation 22; closing with "Come, Lord Jesus. And he did it by telling stories--those stories we all learned as we came up through Bible school--the stories we got star stickers on a chart for knowing; the stories that brought us to read the real thing in the Bible. We wondered if it were really a whale that swallowed Jonah and found that it was a "great fish." We wondered if David really danced naked in the streets, and sure enough....They were stories that nudged us toward receptive insight...stories that led us into the deeper life of the Spirit as Jesus described the woman with perfume in Mark 14 who "did what she could when she could."

Thank you Lord for stories. May we never denigrate their importance.