Saturday, January 18, 2014

More to YOUR Story

If you simply judge books by their covers, you might pass this book by. Its title is "A Schindler Story". The cover is unassuming and bears the name of an author you may not know.  It was published in 2010 but has been written over the past 40 years and as a matter of fact it's still being written.

You see, this book of mine is a valued gift. I created it one Christmas for my wife to tell our story together.  As other people were busy buying gifts I sat in my office for hours creating a scrapbook of our lives.  It's funny how you get hooked telling a story through pictures.  I got hooked as I poured through hundreds of photos and picked which ones would tell our journey from birth to death.  Childhood, lower and upper school, college and early marriage to becoming parents...our tale unfolds page after page.

This is not just any book; this is a book about my family tree. The stories would probably not be of any
interest to you, but they are to me. That’s what happens when you hear part of your story. Something
that seems lifeless comes to life. Something that looks dull becomes dynamite, firing up your heart and
igniting your imagination. You are reminded that you are part of something bigger than you are, that
began before you and will continue on after you.

That is why God wants you to know his story. It’s found in another book. He wants to take you into his
house where he has framed photos of your ancestors––folks you may not know––lining the walls of his
house. Stories of a family patriarch named Abraham whose faith was as great as any. A matriarch named Ruth with courage that would make the most hardened warrior proud. A stubborn Jonah and his improbable fish tale. Impetuous Peter and his big mouth. Persistent Paul and his adventures in preaching.

Yet who he wants most of all for you to meet in his story is his son. He desires for you to look long into
the eyes of Jesus Christ and hear his claims that what he began in the first chapter of creation he will
realize at the last chapter of the New Creation, where a perfect people can live in a perfect place with
their perfect Lord.

The perfect place is on the Storyboard. The question is, “Are you?” You can be there when you find your place in His Story.  Join me in the larger story.