Leaving a Lasting Story

Good morning guys 

Have you every wondered why God chose to do the things He did? I know my heart has cried out that question many times. We trust that the Lord knows His reasons and that those reasons are good, but sometimes our heart just wants to know the answer. Many times, I have had to wait years before I started to see the edges of God’s plan, but in our reading today, God straight up tells Moses why Pharaoh’s heart would not give in: There is something memorable about a story.

When I first started studying scripture, I struggled so much with learning how my teachers and leaders were telling me to learn. They strongly encouraged memorizing scripture, but my brain simply doesn’t work that way. I can’t tell you how many times I have wished that I could recall the exact quote, but then God showed me the power of the story. 

A story paints pictures facts can only outline. The color, the shading, the emotion comes from the words in between. We are far more likely to remember a moving story than a list of facts. Can you tell me what year Moses liberated the Israelites? Can you tell me the cities the Hebrews built and for what pharaoh? Maybe you can; maybe you can’t, but I bet you can tell me Moses’ famous command when he stood before Pharaoh… 

“Let my people go!” 

Whether you first heard the story of the plagues in church, through a storybook, or in one of the many cartoons and movies made on the incident, the image of Moses standing at the shore of the Red Sea with his arms stretched high most likely competes with images of a burning bush in your mind. Would it have made such a good story if Pharaoh had let the Israelites go when Moses first reappeared in Egypt? Would Hollywood pay to make that movie?

When you consider everything you know about what the Bible contains, you will most likely realize the first things you learned were stories. Our God is a creative being. He is more than an artist; He is also a skillful storyteller. He understands how we learn and how we remember, and He knows that we are more likely to tell our son and our son’s sons the epic tales of struggle and conquest. 

I still struggle with memorizing the exact words of scripture, but I can surely tell you the stories. Someday, someone will tell our story. It will contain highs and lows, victories and failures, but that is what makes a story epic. If we never overcame, our lives would forgettable. 

Tell your story. Tell the story of what God has done in the Bible and in your life. The stories we tell change those who hear them. They become precious pearls hiding in the corners of our memory, ready to come forth and refresh or spirit with the knowledge of just who our God is.