Anyways!
During that time we spent one evening all sitting in the living room listening as my brother in law read Hope (my niece) her Bible stories before bed. After reading about the empty tomb (her favorite) she wanted to hear the story of Jonah.
It's a good story with great drawings of stormy seas and a small pale man sitting in the belly of a whale surrounded by dead fish and seaweed.
Lovely!
Have you ever heard a story that you have been familiar with your whole life and suddenly and randomly it feels like you are hearing it for the first time? This sometimes happens to me during sermons when a new perspective is presented, but from a children's bible with more pictures and colors than sentences?! Well…it happened to me.
Jonah. A guy just like the rest of us. A guy with a heart that knew God but was still growing in letting his personal agenda fade in the presence of Gods heart; more concerned with self comfort than spiritual obedience.
We have all done that right?
Yeah. About everyday five hundred times.
A guy who was very aware of his sin, because who when a storm hits your boat knows exactly why it's happening?
Seriously, his situation is quite plainly terrifying.
In the moment of hearing this story unfold I thought of what this would truly be like.
He is literally tossed over the side of a ship like a banana peel out of a car window.
Sinking in an ocean that is total crazy town with huge waves, with propably some thunder and lightening to boot. The story says he recalls having weeds wrapped around his head and is down in the land at the root of the mountains. He has sunk to the bottom. At this point if it is not feeling terrible enough already what is that massive, slimy, bulging eyed creature headed straight for me? Oh. Right. Of course its huge gnarly mouth is opening and well…#throatwaterslidefordays
ok.
All ridiculous commentary aside this is clearly insane!
Only God thinks up such outlandish ways to teach His children.
Here is the thing, I honestly haven't read this story much but as the reality of this was playing through my mind things started coming into the light.
Go with me here….this is not new, or earth shattering by any means but this is true hope for the human condition. Consider the parallels of another familiar story.
A human, bound by his sin and selfishness, destined to run forever in the opposite direction of His greatest joy and fulfillment, causing others around him to fear and panic looking for a way to save themselves, tossed overboard and pulled down by the water and waves polluted with worldly sin and smog.
Then, God steps into action. He comes, sets up the system, and provides the most unlikely escape route. An alternative, a secret passage, a parachute that was the most unlovely and the most unexpected.
This human spends three days and three nights in the dark insides of a whale, the world thought he was dead and gone forever.
Then, hope came to him again. It wasn't the easy, or pleasant, or comfortable route for him to take (literally) but that route, that bridge meant life. A second chance.
For someone like me, realizing the depth of love and grace in a story like this is deeply life changing. Love truly changes everything.
For God this was not a matter of Fish or cut bait, it was just Fish.
The more I dive into the Bible, I uncover the stories that are treasures, that point straight to the Cross, that put a mirror to the Gospel.
Stories, writings, songs, and cries of people like each of us that are literally snatched from the claws of eternal damnation.
I would say even after reading and writing these thoughts it is not coming across as clearly as I would like, but that is just because my thought is simple and it is this….
I am glad that God saved Jonah. I am glad that God saved me. I am glad He is still saving me from myself. I am glad because this is a simple truth that I could spend the rest of my life being stoked about, and I will be.