Thought For The Week 14 April 2024

Our series “Ordinary People, Extraordinary God” is a great opportunity to reflect on characters from the Biblical story and get to know them a bit better. Of course, the cast of the Bible is too large for us to cover everyone. But, it’s a chance to think about who our favourite person in the bible is (other than Jesus of course). Is there someone that particularly resonates with you? Have you taken time to reflect on what draws you to that character, their experience and how God met them? We can take this imaginative experience even further if we ask ourselves which Bible character gives voice to your own lived experience. Who would you be most like in the Bible?

The Bible is very open about the messiness and imperfectness of our so-called ‘heroes of the Bible’. Even though we are separated by several thousand years of culture, we can recognise at their heart these people long to belong, be known and loved. People who experience hard times, unhealthy rivalries and injustice, but also goodness, plenty and blessing. We have much to learn from the lives of Biblical characters, we can memorise and analyse their life stories and mine them for pertinent lessons. But as one Old Testament scholar puts it, “we also need to be open to leaps of inspired imagination”. Allowing ourselves to identify with these ancient ordinary people can point us to how God is moving in our lives here today, reminding us that the story of God at work in creation is ongoing. We too are characters in the great drama of God’s amazing creation project. Imagining ourselves in the Biblical story can help inspire and enrich our faith as we play out our part.

Luke