“Momma, is it time to read yet?”
“Yes. Go pick a book.”
“Here, Momma. I picked this one.” My young son would smile, hand me the book, then climb on my lap.
“Harold and the Purple Crayon. Excellent choice. What do you think will happen to Harold?” I’d smile back and kiss his forehead. He’d giggle knowing his choice was the same one he had made the day before and the day before that. Harold and the Purple Crayon was his favorite book and we read it every day. He never tired of it. I often thought we should venture to a different book, but I loved seeing his cute little face light up every time we turned each page.
By listening to the story, my son was drawn in, literally and figuratively. It invited him into a world he’d never seen or heard before. With each reading, the story became more real, more tangible, and more understandable priming his imagination to create his own dreams of adventure.
And so it is with our own stories.
As children, we allowed ourselves to be drawn into storybooks and fairy tales. Our young hearts saw hope and dreamed possibilities. We lived in our imagination writing our own stories with whimsy and adventure. Magic happened in our minds and hearts.
But that was before the realities of life mocked our magic and laughed at our dreams. Our moments of joy and hope bumped up against life’s disappointment and heartache. What was once the setting of a fairy tale became the city of survival and getting by. Life has a way of writing our stories in a way we neither understand nor anticipate. With each twist and turn in our story, we lose sight of where we are heading causing us to struggle to hear God’s guidance for our future.
In the book, To Be Told, Dr. Dan Allender invites us to consider the power of story – our story, God’s story, and the stories of the lives of whom we are called to engage. Dr. Allender helps us find the courage to enter the beauty and brokenness of our own stories so we can see the link between our own story and the story of Scripture. By engaging in our own stories, we become better equipped to engage in the stories of others as God has called us.
Much like my son’s enthusiasm for the story of Harold and the Purple Crayon, God desires that we engage in our stories with eager anticipation and hopeful dreaming.
Written by Marisa Wandeler
Join Dan and Marisa Wandeler on Sunday mornings to explore and learn how to engage in the most powerful and beautiful parts of Christ’s story told through your own story.
Each week we will cover a chapter from the book, To Be Told, and discuss life-engaging questions in a group setting. As a group, we will also learn the skill of listening and engaging in the stories of others with Christ intended sincerity and kindness.
Begins Sunday, October 1. Interested? Email Marisa.