In the background of our lives are stories. More than facts and figures and outcomes, stories guide how we live our lives, how we interact with people, how we work, what we hope for. We attach ourselves to stories and, sometimes, we become a character in the stories. We imagine our lives lived through the people, places, and events of these stories.
Think of the story of The Little Engine that Could. Seared into my mind is this board book with the blue steam-powered locomotive with a smiling face on the smokestack. On the pages of the book is the story of a train carrying toys and food to kids who are on the other side of the mountain. The locomotive pulling the train breaks down and the toys and food are left stranded on the tracks.
As other locomotives pass by the helpless train they are either too important or too old to make the trip, but then comes along another smaller, less important locomotive who says, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.”
From this story is born a belief that even the smallest, most seemingly insignificant of characters can do big things if they just try. How many times have children said, “I think I can,” to some daunting task because of a story told to them? This is the way stories work in our lives. They expand our imagination and encourage us to live in a certain way.
Jesus knows this. In his ministry one of his favorite ways to get a point across was to tell stories. Throughout the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke we receive stories—parables—about how we are called to understand the world and how to live our lives. These parables invite us not to elucidate theological doctrines, but they invite us to imagine real world examples of how we interact with God’s creation.
In Luke 15 Jesus tells of a man who had two sons. The younger son asked for his inheritance and moved away to a distant land and squandered his inheritance. He became destitute and lowered himself to feeding pigs and even tempted to eat their food. He had hit rock bottom. He decided to return home and beg for mercy from his father. He figured becoming a servant of his father would make for a better life than where he presently found himself.
Instead, the father joyously received his son back, restored him as a son, and threw a big party. The older son was angry and jealous. He had always been faithful to his father, but he had not received such a celebration as his bum of a younger brother. But the merciful father says, “My son you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
In this parable we learn about a merciful father, a jealous, angry older son, and a foolish, repentant younger son. We are invited by Jesus to attach ourselves to any one of them—or all of them—and decide how we ought to respond! We are invited by Jesus to participate in the actions of a story that shows love and mercy and grace and forgiveness.
Through parables we learn who is our brother and sister and how we are to love them. We are taught how our Good Father will provide for us. We are taught what God’s kingdom is all about and how we are to live in it. We are taught how to pray.
The power of stories is something we underestimate to our own peril. And stories are all around us. Politicians tell us stories. Social media influencers tell us stories. Pop stars tell us stories. Sports tell us stories. What stories are you consuming and making part of your story? Are you taking hold of stories that are life-giving and God pleasing?
Jesus tells us parables that are meant to guide us to become more like who we were ultimately created to be—human beings made in God’s image reflecting the same love He has shown us. In Jesus’ parables we are given powerful stories, more powerful than any of the other stories this world can tell. May we take hold of Jesus’ parables in our lives and may we reflect their life-giving truth in our daily walk.
