I know all the stories. I grew up on them. I have been through so many VBSs as either a student or a teacher that my footprints spontaneously morph into Bible-themed papier-mache crafts. I grew up in Bible classes at church and had a number of wonderful teachers who made every effort to help me learn the stories of Scripture in my formative years. They did an incredible job, and I am forever indebted to them for the work they did as I grew up. These stories colored my upbringing and became part of my life as I got older.
The problem I have discovered is that I really don't know these stories. This isn't because my teachers failed to teach me. No, I can tell you about what happened in them, and I can talk all about the people involved, the big events, the timeline; you name it, and I can talk about it. I have realized that this is where my problem lies. I never grew beyond the small tellings that I learned as a child. I left the lessons to grow cold and stale as I grew older and focused on the more "important" things of Scripture.
Jonah is a story I learned about growing up. Jonah is a prophet (enter the singing vegetables), and he fails to do what he's called to do. There's a big fish, and then Jonah learns his lesson. That is the story I knew, and the point of the story was to obey what God says… Except it isn't, and Jonah doesn't. Jonah never obeys God's call because he learns about God's mercy and grace through his experience; Jonah obeys out of spite. I spent a decade of my life thinking the story of Jonah had a central theme of obedience, when that isn't something Jonah shows us.
Jonah ends with a man of God being angry at the God he claims to worship, because He chose to show grace and mercy to people he considered enemies.
Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal on a mountain and proves that Baal is a false god. He goes so far as to drench his sacrifice in water, showing that God's power cannot be stopped by wet wood… Except that the wood being wet has nothing to do with the fire and everything to do with what it means to make a sacrifice. Earlier in 1 Kings, Elijah is told by God that there will be a drought, and God's word is held true; it hasn't rained. Three years without rain, and Elijah decides to pour an obscene amount of water on this altar. Elijah isn't getting the wood wet because wet wood doesn't burn - Elijah is sacrificing the most valuable thing that there is to give up to God.
Water is poured out as a sacrifice to God in a place where there hasn't been a drop to fall from the heavens for three years.
These realizations about these stories came only after I had been reintroduced to them. I had to be stirred out of my complacency about the stories I thought I knew to actually learn the more accurate lessons God has for his people to draw from Scripture. These two stories are just two from my childhood that I had let sit and gather dust. How much more am I missing because of this?
If I can make the fish the greatest part of the story of Jonah, and miss all that is actually there outside of those few verses, then do I really know the Gospel?
Have I lost sight of Jesus to focus on the miracles He did? I have this concern that what I think about Scripture, and by greater extension, my Maker, is stuck in what I learned as a child. Not that it doesn't at least have some validity, but that it is off base to what Scripture really says. That if I go back and look at what Jesus says, I would be astonished at my foolish, simplified version of it.
I had been walking in a fog, lost in the superficial memories that I made of these Biblical stories.
Jesus says that the way is narrow. I have always seen that translated as there aren't many people in pursuit of God. I wonder if Jesus meant that this narrowness requires careful attention to avoid getting distracted or lost. That it is easy to think you know where you're going, but if you aren't careful, you will end up walking in circles instead of walking towards Him. He says the way is difficult, which could mean any number of things, and I don't think Jesus chose that word by accident. The difficulty could come from any number of obstacles or hurdles that cause us to stumble or struggle, but it could also mean that the road itself is hard to see.
My return to Scripture has taken longer than I would have liked. What I think I know has often gotten in the way of what I need to learn. The fog of what I bring to Scripture has hidden what Scripture is trying to tell me. I must strive to push this fog away; to stop looking at the stories as if I know them, and to focus more on what is there.