The Noah account is well known. God gets fed up with human rebellion, wipes out nearly all of creation, and starts over. But the way it comes down presents a glimpse into the divine nature.
We have Noah building a huge boat to exact specifications. The chore of gathering every species of living thing. Then heavy rain for forty days, with the ark finally floating peacefully while a bird provides environmental intelligence. And those are only the highlights. There’s much more.
Why all the drama? Couldn’t God have simply sent a cosmic gamma ray and accomplished the same thing in a millisecond? A co-worker recently opened my eyes to a possible answer during an unrelated conversation. “God loves a good story,” she said.
That could explain a lot. Perhaps life’s challenges, joys, even sufferings, are part of a huge intersection of complex tales … His, yours, mine, everyone’s. God could snap those heavenly fingers and circumvent thousands of intermediate steps, but we’d lose all the nuances of the process. And would our experiences be as beneficial?
As much as I sometimes long to see a magic wand rescue mankind – and me – instantaneously, that’s not likely to happen. Since I can’t understand or explain, I’ll rely on my friend’s insight. God just loves a good story.
(Thanks Tonya.)
If God were simply a puppeteer orchestrating our every thought, word and deed there would be no value to this human experience. I think it is in our collaboration with Him that things get interesting and meaningful. It’s like the gravesite scene from Forrest Gump when Forrest speaks to his beloved, departed Jenny: “I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both is happening at the same time.” The story is ours to co-author, and God can’t wait to see our next chapter.
Thanks, I loved this post. And as the saying goes … like father like child. Who doesn’t love a good story? After all, we were created in His image.
This topic has been challenging me over the last year or so. Challenging me to look at my life and listen to what God may be doing during this chapter of my tale. Your post/the topic is so grand and yet so particular in scope. You captured our dilemma perfectly and the answer so profoundly: God loves a good story. And as a dear friend recently said to me…. “every great story has redemption at its core.” (paraphrasing)