| |
An
84-year old man, quite blind and nearly deaf, sat across from me at the
kitchen table. This man, my father, lacked coherence, causing me to repeat
myself more often. You see, my dad was getting quite old now and I so desired
to sense a bit more about my father's past--what made him click and tick.
More often I had seen him watching me with a critical eye. Would I ever
be able to touch base with him and feel a real bonding and kinship while
discovering my roots? Time was running out, so it seemed.
Others have similar
experiences as I did. Around August 12, 2000, a desperate Lieutenant-Captain
Dmitry R. Kolesnikov, aboard the Russian submarine, Kursk, tried to unload
a quick memorandum to his family before he succumbed to lack of oxygen and
hypothermia. Then there is the adopted child who attempts to trace the paths
of the paternal/maternal parent. Unfortunately, these searches tend to meet
block walls rather than to open doors of discovery.
I pondered all this after I received a letter from a
friend. She writes: George, the thing that troubles me about a friend is
that she says she's not sure how true the Bible is. She thinks it's been
put together as a sort of mythological story. I was shocked to hear her
say things like they do not believe it's from God, it's only an account
put together by men. She says, "I don't teach my children that "In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth." Both her husband and herself are
very well educated. Do you have any thoughts on this?
Most people, it seems, believe that there is some sort
of God out there that is in control of matter, life, situations, etc., but
how true is this book called the Bible? |
|
Again,
I reflect back on my musings above. If there where a God out there who
claims He is a Father in Heaven, what more would He want to do but to
leave some sort of legacy, writings, script, that explains who He is,
how He interacts with humans, how He created them, how He treats sin,
His plans for us, and more and more. If He were truly a Father, my suggestion
is He would want His memoirs to be simple and understandable so we can
reminisce His goodness, faithfulness, power and majesty. Just as a good
father wants to instill in his child the sense of who he is, God the Father
also wants to demonstrate to us the sense who He is.
Story after story after story, the Bible--the Book
of Stories, shares with us how God reveals His faithfulness and grace.
These stories reveal how God puts lives together again after people flat
out say: "God, I can't get it together anymore--I'm at the end of my rope."
Friend, I invite you to have an open mind and read the Book of books to
discover who God really is--not something preconceived, or what you have
heard or read about. Psalm 119:105 says it well, "Thy Word is a lamp to
my feet and a light upon my pathway." The Bible is a source on how to
discover your roots!
 |
|
 |
| |
 |
|
