Theodrama

Anyone who has been around children for any significant period of time will notice how absolutely enamored they are with stories. Bedtime stories, naptime stories, during the day stories. They just love stories! And the more excitement a story bears, the more intrigued they are with their childlike anticipation and the glistening in their eyes.

But have you ever tried telling a child a story where he or she was actually a part of the story? Now you definitely have their undivided attention!

Now think back to your own childhood. Do you remember any stories you were told as a child? Take a few moments to reflect back. Any favorites pop up in memory? Any where you were the hero or heroine of the story?

You know what I just asked you to do? I asked you to reflect back on your story; on the story of your life. Each of our lives tell a story. And like any good story, the story of our lives is filled with its happy and sad moments, with its moments of pride and its moments of shame, with its moments of triumph and its moments of pain. But no matter how satisfied we are with our own little stories, we long for something more.

Like a child who longs to hear his or her name in a big exciting story, we too each long for a larger, overarching story in which to belong. But where is such a story to be found? Except for celebrities or politicians, most of our names won’t really be written in a biography or history book.  

So how do we go about satisfying what seems like an innate desire to be part of a larger story?

Well, we need to go back to the One who created us with this innate desire. Do we see this emphasis on stories in the Bible? Well a quick look at the feasts that the Lord commanded the people of Israel to keep attest to the importance of stories. They were commanded to observe the feasts so that when their children asked them, they would be able to tell them the story (Exodus 12:26-27). They were commanded to make them known “to their children and their children’s children” (Deut. 4:9). And not just make them known once, but “talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deut. 6:7).

What about the New Testament? The gospels are filled with Jesus’ stories; His famous parables deeply touched the hundreds of thousands who gathered around Jesus, and certainly continue to impact us today. And these parables were never just meant to be bedtime stories for hearers. They, like the Old Testament stories, were meant to be carried down from one generation to the next, but what is more, they were meant to be lived out. How often have we read the parables and related to the prodigal son, or known someone like the good Samaritan? How often have we felt our hearts were like rocky or thorny soil where the Word of God would not take root? How often have we been convicted by the Holy Spirit for holding on to earthly treasures and leaving the pearl of great value?

Indeed we are designed for stories. Stories speak to our hearts in a very special way.

But the awesome thing about the Christian faith is that God does not just give us a bunch of great stories to live by; He invites us into His story, His “theodrama” to use Dr. Maher Samuel’s term.

Because this theodrama is the story of the eternal God, it is not confined to the boundaries of space and time. It has existed for eternity past and will continue to the infinite eternal future. It includes huge cataclysmic events such as the creation of the universe, tragic events such as the Fall of humanity, glorious events such as the redemption of humanity at the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ… and the story of every individual in this redemptive history, up to the time when the earth as we know it will come to an end, and the most glorious event of all time will take place as the Lord brings us into the new heavens and the new Earth in which the redeemed will enjoy His glorious presence for eternity. This won’t be like any good story with its happy and sad moments, with its moments of pride and its moments of shame, with its moments of triumph and its moments of pain. This will be a perfect story; where God Himself “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

But is this just an eschatological story (of the end times)? Do you recall how Jesus defined eternal life? “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Eternal life is not just eschatological. Eternal life begins here and now for every individual who confesses Christ as Lord and Savior. But does knowing Him happen instantaneously? Well if knowing our fellow humans takes years, knowing the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal God of the universe will take our entire lives and probably all of eternity too! Our lives are a journey of being known by Him and knowing Him, of being loved by Him, and loving Him; a journey that satisfies the deepest longings of every human heart of being intimately known and intimately loved for who we are and in spite of who we are.

This is the story that God invites us to be a part of. This is the story that we long to be a part of. When you agree to be a part of this theodrama, you will live out God’s salvation for you; a salvation that, as Dr. Maher Samuel succinctly puts it, not only saves you from hell, but restores your humanity, and makes your life one worth living by giving you a role in God’s story. You will watch in wonder as God weaves the threads of your story together in a way that only He can do, and you will watch in awe as He weaves those threads into the tapestry of His magnificent theodrama.

So yes, we have not lost our childhood longing for stories. And we have not lost our childhood longing to be part of a much larger story. But to me, the Christian story offers the only comprehensive story big enough to encompass the redemptive stories of billions of people across the ages, yet very distinctively gives each individual a unique role that no one else in history and no one else in the future can fulfill. We serve a personal God who does not feel threatened by our individuality. It is only when we truly find Him, do we discover the unique individuality that He created us with and delights in. I’ll close with a brilliant quotation from C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, “We (devils) want cattle who can finally become food; He (God) wants servants who can finally become sons. We (devils) want to suck in, He (God) wants to give out. We (devils) are empty and would be filled; He (God) is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below (Satan) has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy (God) wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.”

What a story! Will you join the storyline?