GOD'S BIG STORY
Seeing the Plot, Playing Our Parts
After twenty-one years of parenting and twenty-six years as a Christian, many of them as a Bible teacher, the casual announcement of a five-year-old radically changed the way I saw the Scriptures and took its message to heart. My son reported to me that his dad had told him a story that morning. I didn't hear that as particularly big news...
"What story did he tell you?" I asked absent-mindedly.
"He told me the Bible!"
"What?” I asked, "How long did it take him?"
"About five minutes!" he answered jubilantly.
I was astonished. How did he do that? This whole encounter made me realize that most of us have a pretty fragmented understanding of the Bible. We can recount various slices of biblical history ... we may understand the argument of Romans or Ephesians ... but we have little understanding of the sweep of the whole story. This teaching looks at the awe-inspiring plot of the big story, tracing some of the themes that connect the whole, and considering what it takes to play our parts in that story.