Христос воскрес! Воистину воскрес!
There's a Jewish saying: "God created man because he loves stories." I think that has a lot of truth to it. But not only does God love stories, he loves the people whose stories are being told moment by moment across the globe. And I'm amazed that the story of my choices, mistakes, regrets--the story of my life--actually matters to God.
I think what makes us unique isn't so much our height or shape or fingerprints or eye color but our histories, our stories. Day by day our lives are woven into a giant narrative, and every moment we become more and more the story of who we are. We are our stories. And we only connect with other people when we know their stories. The more intimate we are, the more our stories intertwine. That's one reason divorce is so painful--because it rips a single, deeply threaded story apart into two.
Sometimes I think about all the billions of stories swirling around each other on this planet, touching, deepening, unfurling, unraveling. And each one of those stories, each one of those people, mattered so much to the Author of Life that he left heaven and began the dreadful trek to the cross (see John 3:16). The original script called for unity and harmony, but our first parents chose to derail the story of humanity into a graveyard.
"Okay," said the Creator. "Then I'll tell a new story. One that includes a detour through an empty tomb." But to make that tale come true, he had to enter our story himself.
When Jesus was born, the Word of God became flesh, enmeshed in a story. The storyteller entered the tale. The author stepped onto the page. The poet whose very words had written the cosmos became part of the text of this world.
Like the harmony and the melody living together in the same song, Jesus was divinity and humanity living together in the same heart. He was the Word of God, God's story, in the flesh.
--Steven James, Story
The ship has gone down. Coruscant has fallen to the Empire. Rome burns. Winter has come to Narnia. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Longshanks has enslaved Scotland. Commodus has committed murder, and Rome has fallen under the rule of its most wicked emperor ever.
This is where most stories take up their tale: The kingdom has been overthrown. Paradise has been lost. Evil holds sway, or is gathering on the borders of the land, ready to make its final move. Frodo barely makes it out of the Shire with his life and the ring of power. The Nine Black Riders cross the river on midsummer's eve and are hunting down the little hobbit with deadly intent. The future of Middle Earth stands on the edge of a knife.
In the first of another trilogy, Neo is awakened from the death-sleep of the Matrix to discover that the world he thought was real is actually a massive deception cast upon the human race to keep them prisoners. He comes to see that he has lived a lie his entire life, that in fact he is not free at all but a slave of a great evil power. Or as the Scripture has it, "The whole world is under the control of the evil one" (1 John 5:19).
Darth Vader just about has the universe under his fist when a pair of droids fall into the hands of Luke Skywalker. Luke has no idea what is unfolding, what remarkable deeds have been done on his behalf, or what will be required of him in the battle to come. Sitting in a sandstone hut with old Ben Kenobi--he does not know this is the great Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi--Luke discovers the secret message from the princess: "This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope." Messages are also being sent out from the grand ship undone by an iceberg. Titanic is going down, and not everyone is going to make it.
But wait.
Consider also this: every great story has a rescue.
Jack will come to rescue Rose. William Wallace will rise up to rescue Scotland. Luke Skywalker will rescue the princess and then the free peoples of the universe. Nemo's father rescues him. Nathaniel rescues beautiful Cora--not just once, but twice. Neo breaks the power of the Matrix and sets a captive world free. Aslan comes to rescue Narnia. I could name a thousand more. Why does every great story have a rescue?
Because yours does.
On the day Adam and Eve fell from grace, they ran off and hid in the bushes. And God came looking for them. He called to Adam, "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9). Thus began the long and painful story of God's pursuit of mankind. Though we betrayed him and fell into the hands of the Evil One, God did not abandon us. Even a quick read of the Old Testament would be enough to convince you that rescue is God's plan. First with Noah, then with Abraham, and then with the nation Israel, you see God looking for a people who will turn to him from the heart, be his intimate allies once more.
--John Eldredge, Epic
This is what Easter is about.
I think what makes us unique isn't so much our height or shape or fingerprints or eye color but our histories, our stories. Day by day our lives are woven into a giant narrative, and every moment we become more and more the story of who we are. We are our stories. And we only connect with other people when we know their stories. The more intimate we are, the more our stories intertwine. That's one reason divorce is so painful--because it rips a single, deeply threaded story apart into two.
Sometimes I think about all the billions of stories swirling around each other on this planet, touching, deepening, unfurling, unraveling. And each one of those stories, each one of those people, mattered so much to the Author of Life that he left heaven and began the dreadful trek to the cross (see John 3:16). The original script called for unity and harmony, but our first parents chose to derail the story of humanity into a graveyard.
"Okay," said the Creator. "Then I'll tell a new story. One that includes a detour through an empty tomb." But to make that tale come true, he had to enter our story himself.
When Jesus was born, the Word of God became flesh, enmeshed in a story. The storyteller entered the tale. The author stepped onto the page. The poet whose very words had written the cosmos became part of the text of this world.
Like the harmony and the melody living together in the same song, Jesus was divinity and humanity living together in the same heart. He was the Word of God, God's story, in the flesh.
--Steven James, Story
The ship has gone down. Coruscant has fallen to the Empire. Rome burns. Winter has come to Narnia. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Longshanks has enslaved Scotland. Commodus has committed murder, and Rome has fallen under the rule of its most wicked emperor ever.
This is where most stories take up their tale: The kingdom has been overthrown. Paradise has been lost. Evil holds sway, or is gathering on the borders of the land, ready to make its final move. Frodo barely makes it out of the Shire with his life and the ring of power. The Nine Black Riders cross the river on midsummer's eve and are hunting down the little hobbit with deadly intent. The future of Middle Earth stands on the edge of a knife.
In the first of another trilogy, Neo is awakened from the death-sleep of the Matrix to discover that the world he thought was real is actually a massive deception cast upon the human race to keep them prisoners. He comes to see that he has lived a lie his entire life, that in fact he is not free at all but a slave of a great evil power. Or as the Scripture has it, "The whole world is under the control of the evil one" (1 John 5:19).
Darth Vader just about has the universe under his fist when a pair of droids fall into the hands of Luke Skywalker. Luke has no idea what is unfolding, what remarkable deeds have been done on his behalf, or what will be required of him in the battle to come. Sitting in a sandstone hut with old Ben Kenobi--he does not know this is the great Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi--Luke discovers the secret message from the princess: "This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope." Messages are also being sent out from the grand ship undone by an iceberg. Titanic is going down, and not everyone is going to make it.
But wait.
Consider also this: every great story has a rescue.
Jack will come to rescue Rose. William Wallace will rise up to rescue Scotland. Luke Skywalker will rescue the princess and then the free peoples of the universe. Nemo's father rescues him. Nathaniel rescues beautiful Cora--not just once, but twice. Neo breaks the power of the Matrix and sets a captive world free. Aslan comes to rescue Narnia. I could name a thousand more. Why does every great story have a rescue?
Because yours does.
On the day Adam and Eve fell from grace, they ran off and hid in the bushes. And God came looking for them. He called to Adam, "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9). Thus began the long and painful story of God's pursuit of mankind. Though we betrayed him and fell into the hands of the Evil One, God did not abandon us. Even a quick read of the Old Testament would be enough to convince you that rescue is God's plan. First with Noah, then with Abraham, and then with the nation Israel, you see God looking for a people who will turn to him from the heart, be his intimate allies once more.
--John Eldredge, Epic
This is what Easter is about.