When was the last time you asked someone their story? How can we ever really know another person without them revealing their story? Sure, you can get a lot of information about an individual off of the internet, but that information doesn't tell who they really are.
For instance, imagine that find out that a person loves a certain television show. What can their affinity for said television show tell you about them? It may tell you that they like a specific genre (like sci-fi). But what if they like the show in spite of its genre? Without peeling back the layers of the individual, and that rarely ever happens without self disclosure, what can you really know?
To really know someone, you have to get their story. To get their story, you have to go to the source. If revelation is necessary, and it is, in human relationships, how much more is it necessary in the relationship between God and man.
In Scripture, we have the revelation of God. God is revealing himself--his character and nature. He demonstrates his expectations of mankind. In that revelation, we meet God. As we read God's Word, we come to understand who God is. The unfolding of the knowledge of God, in turn, reveals something about ourselves.
Human beings are social creatures, created for social interaction. In part, that means we cannot fully understand ourselves apart from the relationships that we are in. To put it another way, when human beings interact they learn from one another. As we interact with each other, we learn about ourselves and our place in the larger world.
Likewise, as we come to know God through his Word, we learn about ourselves and our place in his story. Being caught up in God's story means that the lives our lives touch have a place in that story. So I return to my first question: When was the last time you asked someone their story? When was the last time you shared yours?
No comments:
Post a Comment