The Big Story

When difficult circumstances are stacking up all around me and it’s hard to imagine my way around them, I’m in the habit of telling God all about it. I usually say, “Lord, I’m going to start at the very beginning.” And that’s what I do—I tell Him the whole thing, even though I know that He already knows all of it. But I find that the act of telling Him makes my heart feel much lighter.

A couple of weeks ago, I had been telling God all about something. I had started at the very beginning when suddenly an idea came to my mind. It was a little like watching a movie. In my imagination, I saw a book sitting on a table. The characters in the book were real people, living out their lives within the pages of the book. They were confined to it and the story that was unfolding within it—unable to jump out onto the table or explore the room around it. They had no idea they lived in a book, they only knew they lived. But I, as an observer, knew so much more. I knew about the book and the table on which it sat. Even beyond that, I knew about the room that held the book and the table. I knew the whole house, the neighborhood, the village, the country, the world, and the galaxy.

As I thought about how much more I knew than the people in the book, I considered how much more God knows than I do—how broad His context is compared to mine. I thought about all the times I tell Him the whole story, and how He must smile at the thought. And the times I ask Him, “Why?” I imagine that quite often, I wouldn’t understand the answer if He shared it. My view is a narrow one.

This week, delight in knowing that The One who walks with you knows your whole story. And even if your story doesn’t make sense to you right now, it makes sense to Him, so lean on Him.

Blessings to you,

~Amy