I had a room mate in university who once asked me, “If the Bible were being written today, do you think we’d be in it?” I’ve thought about her question from time to time. I’m not sure if she was wondering about her or our level of faithfulness and whether or not it would be noticed. She may also have been seeking a tangible way to be part of God’s story.
So, are we in God’s story? As a child, I saw myself in
the stories of the Israelites from Genesis to the rule of David. In fact, I
remember the shock around Grade 10 when it was made clear that I was not in
fact a Jew but a Gentile. Despite not being a biological Jew, the stories of
the Hebrew people are so relatable—human nature spans one’s ethnicity. The life
of Jesus is also sprinkled with characters we can relate to.
We live in a culture where people look to celebrities
and “follow” them. Not even the Christian church is immune with singers,
teachers, pastors and congregations building brands and empires. We are tempted
to read the Bible as the stories of heroes to emulate and villains to scorn.
But when we do that, we miss the truth that God is the main character and that
God can use anyone—adult, child, powerful, weak, named, unnamed, Middle
Eastern, African, European, Asian-- to help bring about his purposes. The
apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians of their beginnings, which were nothing to
boast about:
“Brothers
and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you
were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of
noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things
of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame
the strong. 28 God chose
the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are
not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so
that no one may boast before him.”
Ten examples
that shine a spotlight on hidden figures.
1. The little boy
who gave up the five loaves and two fish to Jesus, resulting in the feeding of
the 5,000.
2. The servant girls
who urged Naaman the Syrian to go to Israel’s prophet to be cured of leprosy.
3. Shepherds were a disreputable
class of people who nonetheless were the angels’ audience as they shared the news of the Messiah’s birth.
4. Jehoida the
priest, who lived to be 130 years of age, faithfully advised the seven-year-old
King Joash and kept him on a good path.
5. Eliezer, Abraham’s
servant, found a wife for Isaac so that Abraham’s line could continue at a
critical time in Canaan.
6. Who does Jesus
take the time to talk to as he’s being rushed to the synagogue ruler’s house to
heal his 12 year old daughter? A woman who’s been bleeding for 12 years.
7. An ill Egyptian
servant of the enemy Amalekites left for dead enabled David to reclaim all the
people and goods raided from the town of Ziklag.
8. It’s not known
which of these was the first African to receive Jesus as Lord: maybe Simon of
Cyrene, who carried Jesus’ cross or his sons Alexander and Rufus or the
Ethiopian eunuch or Simeon called Niger or Lucius of Cyrene.
9. Who rescued the
prophet Jeremiah from the mucky cistern? Ebed-Melech, a Sudanese man who was a
government official.
10. The Apostle Paul’s
nephew overheard a plot to ambush Paul on the way to Caesarea and spoke up so
that it could to be carried out.
Something my room mate and children and we ourselves want to know is, are we part of God’s story? Does God’s story include people like me? Fortunately, for all of us the answer is “yes.” For some of us, who might feel like we don’t fit, it may take a careful search to demonstrate this truth: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on US that WE should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1, emphasis mine).
