Sunday, February 5, 2017

HERO

Remember story time at your house?

You hop in bed alongside your little son or daughter to read them a bedtime story.  They pick the book.  The same book they've picked the past 30 days.

Sometimes you read that story with great enthusiasm -- you added voices and hand gestures to spice it up a little.

Most nights, that is.

Then there were those other nights you couldn't muster the voices and faces because you were just tired.  You wanted to move the night along, get them to bed, say the prayer, kiss their foreheads, and get on with your life.

But you knew they were never going to sleep unless you read their favorite story.

There was this particular reading technique nobody ever taught you as a parent, it just came naturally at some point.  When you went to turn the page of the book . . . you turned two pages.

I always got caught.

'Hey honey, look over there - there's a huge spider on the wall.'

And when she did, I'd quickly turn three pages at once.

"You skipped a page, Daddy?'

"I did??  How'd that happen?"

She knew the story.  Backward and forward.


There's something about a story that grabs you.


It's interesting that children will sit patiently to hear the same story over and over and over again until they can recite it with you.  Then the next night, they want that same story read again.

There's something about a story that grabs you.  I'm not sure we ever grow out of that.

In fact, if you drill down on your favorite movies - your favorite books, the characters may change a little - the look may change some - but most of them follow the same basic plot.  There may be a different villain, a slightly different adventure, danger or a journey, but ultimately a hero overcomes insurmountable odds or a team of people do what no individual could.

It always goes something like this:  There was a time when things were good - then something terrible happened - evil burst onto the scene - confusion ensued - there was a struggle, a battle, obstacles to be overcome -- and when it seems all is lost, the hero arrives.

Ever wonder why we go back to those stories again and again?  May I submit to you that it's the only story on earth?  That's why it rings to true to us.  There's something universal behind that story.

It's a story written on our own hearts.  It's the story of eternity.  It's the story of the entire Bible.  It's the story of Jesus.

The Hero showed up.

And be blessed.

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