31 Days: Day 1 “story”

It often appears in the form of words and sentences and paragraphs that group themselves into chapters and land between two covers. The thought of a new one or an old one told from an unusual persepctive or a bizarre twist makes my heart race and I want to pick it up and read it right then and there. 

Story is precious and lovely and hard and vicious. It makes my heart race and swoon and drop into despair. 

Oral storytellers were fantastic in the craft if they could hold a crowd captive with simply their voice and a good story.

Now, we don’t need to gather around someone who knows the old stories to be able to hear them but make no mistake, story is not a luxury we can do without. It weaves through us, connects us and forces us to remember. 

This story is about us and our family and the good and the hard and “back and back and back” as Ann Voskamp says in her Christmas book for kids. Generations and generations behind us hold the same story line.  God is still good. He loves us. He never leaves us nor did he leave us in our sin. 

This is the amazing Story. The one that permeates every, and I mean every, book ever written. Good and Evil. Protagonist vs Antangonist. Right and Wrong. Plot twists. All of it. 

His fingerprints are there. The Story thread is there to remind us He’s still the good in the war with evil. He won. He’s the ultimate protagonist – perfect, no character flaws.

Oh and so many plot twists! Rahab being King David’s great great grandmother?? What?! A prostitute in God’s family tree?? No way. 

Then there’s the pharisees who couldn’t even recognize the Man for whom they waited hundreds of years. You almost want to yell at the pages: HEY GUYS! He’s right there! The point of the Passover is standing right there! 

Then they put Him to death – but really He was the one who voluntarily died.

But the ultimate plot twist was yet to come.

His body was in the tomb broken beyond human repair. God dead. His friends so hurt. Grief overpowering. This could not be happening. 

(You know what’s coming)…. 

As part of their grief process, they go to prepare the body and find it gone.

Then an angel tells them: He’s not here. HE HAS RISEN just as He said! So much hope and joy and they just run! They have to tell someone!!!

This. This is story. We didn’t come up with the original idea for it. God created us with this push and desire to create and He gave us the most amazing story to tell. 

Go TELL it! 

For the month of October, I will be joining up with Kate Motaung for 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes. Each post will be inspired by the prompt for the day! Check out last year’s prompts here.