Created to Live in a Storied World

On the wall downstairs is a crude scroll entitled, “The Storrs Road Story.” In telling that story we discovered who we are and declared who we wanted to become. The telling of our story enabled us to participate more faithfully and more fully in God’s story. At least this was and still is my thesis.

We live in a storied world. Genesis One is written in the literary form of a story or narrative. This has profound implications for our understanding of creation. It affirms that we are a people with real existence that comes from God and his word. Each member of the people of God can see himself [herself] in a great story that began with Adam and will end with God’s word, “I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5). It is a corporate “we” story, but each individual is important. In such a story, what you do counts.

Christians, and even non-Christians, share this sense of storied lives. We are a part of a story that begins before us and goes on after us, but whose outcome we may influence. The important thing, then, is to play our part well. It is a story. Christians believe that it is a true story but a story, nonetheless.

Let me suggest some things about the story-line in Genesis 1. Verse 1 denotes an event that took place before the story-line gets underway. Verse 2 describes an existing situation that God works on/creates in the story that follows. The earth is an unproductive and uninhabited place. God speaks “let it be” words that separate, name, and makes it a functional place where humans and his other creatures can live productive lives. In all these actions we see the character of God, his image. He designs, he says things, he appreciates the good, he works and rests. All these acts are governed by love and commitment; a pattern for us in this world.

—Tom Yoakum