Imagine

In laundry and in the words of the psalm writer we how God’s word can inform and inspire every aspect of our life - from the least and most monotenous to the greatest and most exciting times of life.

That’s why I told you the second story. Now why did I tell you the first story - the one about the invitation to use our imagination?

Well, the question is this: What happens when we begin to consider reading the Bible as we make our committment this evening?

We can see it this way: The Bible is not actually one book but is 66 books divided into two parts. There are 39 smaller books in the first part, or the Old Testament and 27 books in the second part, or the New Testament.

It was written over a period of more than 1500 years by many different authors including shepherds, farmers, tent-makers, physicians, fishermen, priests, philosophers, and kings. Different parts of it are written in one of 3 different languages including Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and includes the writings of history, prose, poetry, prophecy, and apocalyptic writings.

As we look at it, we see a book of a couple of thousand pages, depending on the print - a book of black and red ink on white paper.

We can view the Bible this way.

We can read the story of Mary and Joseph, of how Mary, pregnant with child by the Holy Spirit married Joseph, came to Bethlehem to have her baby and named him Jesus. Simple facts of a simple retelling of a simple story.

And we can see reading it as our responsibility and duty, even just as a good thing to do, but without expecting to gain much beyond the records and account - beyond the obvious, observable facts of faith.

Or we can use our imagination to see beyond the observable. We can imagine what it is like to have a revelation given to young girl by an messenger of God and what it must have cost her internally to believe in the message given her. What it must have been like in that day to find out you were pregnant out of wedlock, to know that is was by the Holy Spirit that this happened, and to be the only one in certain posession of such an incredible event.

We can imagine what it cost her to be used by God in such a way - to be the vessel that bore salvation to the world, to be the mother of a child who held the Spirit of God, and to suffer the pain of his death on the cross, to hear what the crowds cried out about him, to experience his resurrection as a mother and what that meant.

We can imagine Joseph, who heard an unbelievable story from the girl he loved - she was pregnant and had not cheated on him. We can imagine what it took for him to believe in his own right what God envisioned for his life and how God was acting in his life by making him responsible for bringing up God’s son in the world.

We can read the story of a man in the beginning of days named Noah who built boat to hold representatives of all the worlds animals during a world wide flood and see it as just that - just a story.

Or, we can imagine the life of Noah, trying to live faithfully in midst of people who didn’t at all have the faith he did, and who ridiculed his obedience. We can imagine a man with such a faith that he built a ship so large, it had a door that could not be closed by human hands. We can imagine the awesome faith in the life of one individual that believed in the power of God to have control over aspects of his life beyond his ability - to close the door - and in the face of adveristy from those around him.