Sound Bytes & True Stories

We visited my aunt and uncle this weekend and spent hours listening to stories. Most I’d heard before. Some I never fully knew. All of them added to the sense that life is bigger than just me. That it stretches backwards and forwards to include more than this time and place. 

I laughed over tales of sibling rivalry. (Mom burnt an iron-shaped hole in Aunt Becky’s favorite sweater.) My eyebrows raised at the description of a former way of life that sounds so simple, it’s hard for me to imagine. (Seven McKinney kids spent endless summer days hoeing cotton, eating homegrown food, and worrying about things like a lost shoe—since each of them only had one pair.) Recalling how dramatically their lives changed after my aunt was invited to church by a friend and the whole family got saved, I thanked God for his sovereign grace in paving the way for my kids—the great grandchildren Betty and J.D. never got to meet—to know their heavenly Father.

The retelling of family stories was a welcomed gift, especially in an age where finding information is so much easier than determining whether or not it’s true. Anymore, clicking on a news story is fraught with the danger of being sold a lie or fed half truths. It’s almost safe to assume that critical facts are being conveniently left out. As I listened to childhood anecdotes, earnest and uncontrived, I thought about how sweet it is to know and trust the voices of those I love. Their words knocked the hard edges off of my growing tendency toward skepticism. I’d forgotten how healing it can be to listen to the simple truth.    

It was just as life-giving to be in the presence of people who are fully acquainted with my story. Separately, Uncle Duane and Aunt Becky knew Robert and I before we knew each other. As a boy scout leader, he taught an unruly 12-year-old how to tie a secure knot. She offered constant reassurance to an insecure preteen with mannerisms more awkward than my middle school hairstyle. Together, they counseled us when we were newlyweds, not batting an eye at the self-made problems we faced. Later, we watched them turn to Jesus as they buried a child, and they held us as we buried our own. 

It strikes me how there are things in life that only make sense in light of the bigger story. Sometimes the details don’t seem significant until later, when you realize how graciously God set the stage for an answered prayer. Other times, we’re caught in the clutches of a single circumstance—unable to recognize God’s power to weave even this into his redemptive plan. 

Life can be painfully disorienting without the realization that God is able to graft every moment into His grander narrative. The enemy of our souls pushes his own agenda. He distorts the facts, piecing together ‘sound bytes’ in an effort to distract us from the truth of the real story—the one that matters most.

But the Author of Life has a pen in his hand. He is writing a story that will right every wrong. Creation. Fall. Redemption. Consummation. Having existed forever in perfect love, the Triune God created the world as an expression of His goodness–a cosmic temple where He could dwell with the people He made. Though humans failed, again and again, God did not. He sent His Word, and then He offered Himself. The Father gave His Son—God in flesh—to walk with His people again and to show them what He is like. Jesus lived and died, and then rose from the dead, to accomplish His mission—redeeming people and restoring them to relationship with the Father. The Spirit of God came to indwell those who believe and entrust their lives to Him—forging the family of God, the Bride of Christ. The Holy Spirit-filled Church is a testimony of God’s faithfulness and a foretaste of the perfect joy that is still to come.

It’s the story of all stories. Narrated by the only Voice that is always trustworthy. If we let Him, the God who knows us better than anyone will gather up all of our moments, saturate them in redeeming grace, and then knit them into a tapestry designed to display His goodness and glory for all of eternity. We can trust Him to make our stories a beautiful part of His Great Story.

Father, 

Let me live in the light of the truth of Your story. Teach me to attend to Your narrative. Make my moments count, like only you can. 

In Jesus’ Name, 

Amen

“And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying ‘Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.’ And the one sitting on the throne said, ‘Look, I am making everything new!’ And then he said to me, ‘Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.’ And he also said, ‘It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty, I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.’”–Revelation 21:2-7