We get to know our story through his story
Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:
What did I like about today’s passage?
Isn’t there something special about family stories? I find it amazing how discovering something about people anywhere up my family tree can make me feel connected to something much bigger than me. But it’s more than that. Knowing about where I came from, even if it’s way back in the past, always makes me at least look again at myself and wonder, “Has this made me who I am? Is this me too?”
I love this pair of Psalms as a complementary set of family stories, and they are deeply embedded in Jewish tradition too. Psalm 105 is read every year among families gathered on the first night of Passover. Some also read Psalm 106 on the second night. If you know you have a family connection to Abraham, this is your big family story. It’s meaningful because God gave blessings and made promises to last “for a thousand generations” to free you from slavery to oppressors and bonded instead to each other and to him.
I love the glorious, famous first story about liberation, and how it’s packed with colourful details the way family stories often are. Can you feel the pain of Joseph’s shackles, the creepiness of frogs in the bedrooms or the comfort of God’s presence as a night light? That’s the idea. You could share this with a child, and they would grow up knowing more than what God wanted to them to do, but who God made them to be.
The second story is more of a challenge. It’s still a reminder of God’s faithfulness, but this is contrasted against people’s sin, our ancestors’ and our own. The pictures of rebellion and trouble are just as vivid and memorable but far less comfortable, because they are reflections on how we don’t just need the world changed around us. We need to change.
But even with this in mind, I love how the writer doesn’t conclude they need to go away and try harder. Instead they press into relationship with God, cry for help and put trust in him.
What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?
God is not just a lawmaker trying to get people to follow a religion and a code regulating life’s stuff. He is ultimately a father, our father. He has been gathering people around these family stories for centuries, and while we might not be part of Abraham’s line, Jesus has grafted us into the family tree, so these are our stories too.
God wants us to deal with him in a family relationship which isn’t broken by sin, but we should still know when to turn and ask for help instead of “wasting away” in rebellion.
What am I going to do differently as a result?
Mal has done a great talk for Severn today on Psalm 139, inviting God to search our hearts so he can clean and strengthen us within family relationship. I will follow his process today. (You can too - see here!)
Who am I going to share this with?
Other people in my family.