Better than Fiction

In my experience, there are few things that bring you to view the world in a new way quite as effortlessly as a conversation with a two-year-old.

Yesterday afternoon, my daughter and I were looking through her children's Bible. She turned the pages and looked at the pictures, and I offered a one-sentence-or-so description of what was going on in each story.

"Jesus healed this man's hand."

"This crowd of people didn't have enough food, so Jesus multiplied the food they had so that there was enough for everyone."

"This woman was sick, and Jesus made her better."

"Jesus walked on the water to get to his friends in the boat."

"Jesus told a story about how we should love everyone, even those people who are different from us."

She seemed to enjoy the activity. We "read" through the New Testament in about ten minutes, and then she set down the Bible and scampered off to play. I wonder whether she thought any more of the activity.

I couldn't shake it from my mind.

I cannot begin to count the number of times I've heard, read, and prayed through these stories. I can recount most of them from memory, word for word. But this simple activity with my daughter opened "the eyes of my heart" to see the collection of stories that we call the New Testament in a whole new way.

Dear Reader, this stuff is better than fiction.

The beauty, the miracles, the drama, the climax, the implications of it all: a person really couldn't make up a story this good if they tried.

The Harry Potter series has sold over 600 million copies worldwide, according to Wikipedia. Stephen King has sold more than 350 million. Clearly, our modern appetite for a good story is hearty.

Why, then, does the Bible get relegated to the narrow tithe of church services and personal prayer time? Why don't more people pick up the Bible and just read?

I wonder whether the difference might be that, whether they want to admit it or not, people recognize deep down that the gospel is more than just a good story. It's not just somebody's brainchild. It's real. It's implications are real.

My guess is that the Bible will never have a literary following as flashy as that which likes to dress up in wizard's robes because we recognize that Jesus wants and deserves more than just our leisurely attentions. If we're going to live out the gospel well, it's going to require the commitment of our whole lives, not just our costume choice for an evening.

I hope my daughter grows to read the gospel as it is, the best story ever written. I hope she isn't afraid to pray with it, pick it apart, wrestle with it, and let it change her to the core. In doing this, I hope she doesn't lose sight of the powerful simplicity of the gospel message. Above all, I hope she comes to know the Author of it all.

In getting to know him, I hope my daughter learns that this story's author isn't a one-hit wonder. Nor is he retired from his work. He is still actively writing, but now instead of writing the story of Jesus' time in earth, he's writing her story.

I hope my daughter gives God the credit he is due for his work in crafting her life's storyline. I hope she recognizes the beauty and the miracles he is writing into it too.

Her story, like Jesus' story, like each of our stories, is guaranteed to be better than even the best fiction. The difference? Our stories, like Jesus' story, are real.