Big God Story

A little over a year ago I began to listen for the sacred echoes of God. I heard a speaker, Margaret Feinberg, define sacred echoes as repetitive, scripturally sound themes, events or ideas. She holds the idea that God uses these echoes to get our attention because He wants to teach us something. As I started listening and watching, I found that in my own life, this is how God often speaks to me. If He wants to make something known in my life, He echoes.

About three weeks ago, new echoes began. One day after we had returned from Israel, I was flipping through the channels, trying to find something interesting to watch during daytime TV (which I am not used to watching). Something caught my attention and I stopped on ‘Channel 47.’ Although I don’t usually watch this Christian station, I recognized that the man on the screen was in Jerusalem. Since I could identify the backdrop for his teaching, I stopped and listened for a moment. The man was talking about the return of the Messiah. He said when Jesus comes back, He will descend on the Mount of Olives and the mountain will be split in two. “On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.” Zechariah 14:4 I had been to the Mount of Olives only weeks before, so the picture of this green mountain was fresh in my mind. I had briefly heard someone mention the mountain in relation to Jesus’ return when I was there. I continued flipping channels, not thinking much about it.

A couple days later I was reading my Bible. I hadn’t found any certain place that I wanted to land - just randomly flipping through - when I caught a word that was familiar to me from my time in Israel. I began reading in Ezekiel where He prophesies about the Valley of Dry Bones. I had seen that valley. I continued reading from Ezekiel when he describes the Messiah. “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd...my servant shall be their prince forever...I will set my sanctuary among them forevermore...my dwelling place shall be among them...” Ezekiel 36:24-28 I hadn’t ever just read through Ezekiel before.

A few days after that I went to the evening Praise and Worship service at my mom’s church. They have been watching Rob Bell’s Nooma videos series for their “sermon” time. The Nooma for that night was called “Trees” and it wasn’t one that I had seen before. In the video Rob Bell describes how there are two trees in the Bible. One is at the very beginning - the tree in the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life. In the last book of the Bible, Revelations, John describes another tree that is in the center of the city of the new earth ... the place where we will spend eternity, where God will dwell with us once again. He says we are living in the time between the two trees.

We are living between the trees. I was fascinated by this concept. I had never spent any time reading Revelations, so when I opened my Bible the next day, I decided to find this tree at the end of the Bible. And there it was, just Rob said. I spent time that day going through the book of Revelations ... learning about the return of Jesus, the defeat of Satan, the new heaven and earth that will be established and the restoration of humanity. “On either side of the river is the tree of life...and the leaves of he tree are for the healing of the nations.” Rev. 22:2 - “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first earth had passed away...I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among the mortals. He will dwell with them...” Rev. 21:1

By this time, I was really paying attention. I thought that there might just be an echo occurring, but I couldn’t piece it all together. All this talk about the end-times and the Messiah had to mean something, but I had no idea what.

A couple other things happened along the way, but I forget now the specifics. A week later, though, I went to a Saturday night service and the Pastor started his sermon talking about the end times. “Okay God, I get it...but really I don’t,” I thought to myself.

The next day I left for San Diego to attend the Children’s Pastors’ Conference. I arrived to the conference in a much different place than I ever had in the past. I usually arrive to CPC depleted, empty, tired, done. This was the first year that I came without the need of being refreshed and renewed. However, I still carried an expectation to hear God speak, to see God move, and have Him guide and lead me in amazing ways.

With this expectation, I went to a workshop called Transformational Teaching by Dr. Michelle Anthony. She talked about the concept of teaching kids “The Big God Story.” The Bible is actually one, big story - the story of how God has worked throughout history, calling His people into relationship with Him. A story that begins with God creating the earth and everything on it; a story that continues in a beautiful garden in Eden and the first act of human rebellion. A story full of a God who wants to set things right and to redeem and restore creation to himself. A story that ends with the nations coming together to spend eternity worshiping the God who created it all. It’s a story all about Him - a story of which we play only a part. One story - between two trees.

So often we teach kids stories from the Bible but we only allow them to see pieces of the bigger story at any given time. Our kids can tell us about Moses and Noah. They know about Joseph and his coat of many colors and about Peter and John, the disciples of Jesus. So often these stories are fragmented, told in isolation. Many times we don’t put these stories into the context of the bigger story where God is central. We make Moses the main character or Noah the hero. In reality, God or Jesus should always be the main character and the hero. What if we taught kids about The Big God Story and shared with them the truth that they play a supporting role in this story, just like Moses and Noah, and Peter and Paul. God has worked through men and women throughout history and God can work through us, too. When we allow children to see themselves as a part of this bigger story, we invite them to feel the awe of being part of something way bigger than themselves. “We can tell them the concrete stories of history in the context of the bigger picture, and we can create opportunities for them to put what they are learning into action,” writes Michelle Anthony.

Michelle Anthony also says that we need to “make the Jesus of Revelation known to our children - to make Him the hero of our lives.” I’m not sure I would have gotten that if God didn’t start echoing to me weeks before. I’m not sure if I would have be challenged to make this mind-shift. The Big God Story might not have had the same effect on me - if He hadn’t started getting my attention (using the end of time) and if He hadn’t continued to echo. If He hadn’t started at the end, I might have missed the big picture.

“At the heart of our Christian faith is a story ... Unless the story is known, understood, owned, and lived, we and our children will not have faith.” John Westerhoff

May you know today that you are a part of the greatest story ever told. And may we strive to teach this story to our children.