What is the theme of God's story? What genre of literature would it be in?
Firstly it's an adventure story, an exciting tale of people searching for hidden treasure, people living wild lives following God, going through ups and downs, being audacious extreme indiana-jones-style-searching-rescuing-aiming-higher-digging-deeper-never-giving-up-running-the-race-disciples.
God's story is a comedy! I love this! God is hilarious - if you don't know him you'll have to take my word for it, or even better find out yourself! If you do know him you will remember experiences when God does totally hilarious things. God has the most genius sense of humour. Read Esther - its so funny! And the story of Samson - we read it as a team the other day and there were frequent bursts of laughter in our office! God's done hilarious things in my life - sometimes I just stop and realise where God has put me and it's so bizarre and just genuinely funny! Little things he does every day, he cracks me up! In our group we were discussing that God must have to dumb down his jokes SO MUCH for us to get them! Because he is so above and beyond us - so maybe he makes a joke, but we don't get it, he makes it more obvious and more obvious again - ah, finally, NOW you get it!
It's also a romance, the story of how God pursues his people, desperately desiring to pour out his love into them and be in relationship with them. The whole of the bible is a story about how God creates people so he can love them and again and again draws them back to him so he can be close to them and connect with them and show them how much he loves and treasures them. As with quite a few romance stories this story included rejection, hurt, betrayal, vulnerability, trust, reconciliation, sacrifice. I know in my heart that God loves me so utterly and completely, and although I don't really understand the true implications of what he's done for me, when I look back at my own life I can see the effort he's put in to drawing me close to him, I know that he pursued me even when I turned my back on him, he didn't give up, even when his love was unrequited, he kept on going and kept waiting for me to open up my heart and accept the love that he offers me. I hope I never get so used to loving God and being aware that God loves me that I forget what it's like to not have that, because then I might stop wondering at it and appreciating it, and I don't want that to happen.
God's story is a tragedy. Honestly, it is tragic that there are people who don't accept what God offers them. In literature, the greatest tragedy is when the character has a chance, an opportunity for success, but for some reason it goes wrong. Like in Hamlet, that guy had such potential to be a great leader, but his one 'fatal flaw' turned his story from a success to a tragedy. He was so close to success but he flushed it all down the toilet (metaphorically speaking). Every single person on this planet has the opportunity to be in relationship with this awesome God. He can give you the most amazing life, he will bless you more then you can possibly imagine, and even better then that, he will let you be a part of what he's doing, he will let you be a part of his Kingdom coming. Jesus died so that we can have a fresh start and be released from all the junk we have accumulated in our lives. It is truly a tragedy that people don't accept what is offered to them.
So what genre is God's story? I can't pick one, and sometimes people experience some genres of God's story but not others, yet they're all still there.
I'm reminded of a book I read as a child where I could decide what choice the character made and go to page 23, or go to page 49, based on that The rest of the story is still there, but for you, it only goes the way you have followed (unless you cheat and read the other routes as well which I always did!). The author has written this story and all the possible ways you could go, but you the reader get to chose what happens.
This gave me such an insight into what God's story, and our story, is like. God is the author of life; I know that he has written out and planned my days. But even though he's already written my life before I've lived it, I still get to chose what happens. Everyone does. That's why God's story is an adventure, and a comedy, and a romance, and a tragedy, and many more genres. It's all of these things and we influence which parts we experience. Your story will be an adventure if you decide to explore and take opportunities and follow Jesus, because he is WILD and he will take you places you can't even imagine. Your story will be a comedy if you ask God to come and reveal himself to you, if you ask him to be a part of your life every day, because then you get to know who God is and that he invented humour and that part of his character is that he is very very funny.
Your life IS a romance. God loves you. You don't get to decide that. But you get to decide if it will be a tragedy, if you will not take this love that is freely offered, or if you will open your heart to God and let him show you how he wants your story to continue from here on.
