Why set rules in the garden that you knew we would break?
Why give us the Torah, knowing we wouldn't measure up?
Why send Jesus to absolve us of our sins after we had only let you down?
Some of our passions are clearly as a result of the fall of man, however there are also some things that we are passionate about because we are image bearers of God who is passionate about them too. Lust would be an example of the former and love an example of the latter. I would like to speculate that the love that we have for a good story is not from the fall. Seriously, how odd is it that we, universally as a species, like to take breaks from living our lives to listen, read, or watch someone else's account of life or their imagined tale of an alternate existence? How strange is it that we don't just live out our lives, but we have to try to experience things outside of our own existence as well? You just don't see platypuses donning stilts and spots pretending to be giraffes while simultaneously commenting on the discrimination found in their own species or octopi acting out a complicated coming-of-age tale about a 24 tentacled love triangle.
When I look back on the Bible and the course of human history, I don't see a God who changed his mind. I don't see a God who came out with "The Law Volume II: The Jesus Revision." Rather I see the unfolding of the mysterious plan of God to save the world. I see a story because I think God understands more than we do the power of a story. For example which is more profound and could have more effect on your life? If I were to tell you that this couple really loved each other or if I told you that they were each other's first kiss, they raised three children, and died almost simultaneously in each other's arms at the age of 95. God is trying teach us something a list of facts just couldn't do.
God, the author, wastes no time in exposition, no, it opens like the opening theme from Star Wars with a robust blast from the entire orchestra. The universe bursts into motion all spinning, exploding, and breathing until everything falls into its gravitational balance. Then God, the protagonist, creates his favorite creation, man. Like all stories, life is good for a little while, until, enter the antagonist. Evil wins. God is forced by his own holiness to give up his people. Could Jesus not just come now to kick some butt and then everybody could just go back into eden? Certainly not. Time progresses and God steps in from time to time to tell man that he loves them and also to give them the rules that they will fail at, but that will one day be the means for their salvation.
Eventually Jesus does come. This is the first climax. In the most sacrificial heroic act, he saves mankind that he loves so much. However, that is not the end of the story. The battle still rages on. The story continues with twists and turns and leads towards the climactic return of the hero, but even this is not the end of the story. In fact, the Hebrew people didn't even think of this as the end of time, but rather as the end of an age. So, even after Revelation, the story is not over.
So sure there are things that may gnaw at us about the story or some of the characters. And sure there are some plot twists that seem like mistakes or make us want to stop reading. This story, unlike all others, has the most reliable author. I make no claims to tell the future, but I have a feeling, a hunch, call it a piece of foreshadowing that we will like ending and that all of the unnecessary and confusing parts will one day show themselves to be necessary to the wonderful and beautiful tale that is life.
But where do we fit in in this story...
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