What’s Your Story?

When I was growing up, my grandfather was a professional photographer.  His dark room was in the basement of his home where he spent hours and hours, developing pictures.  The walls of his reception room were covered with pictures of high school seniors posing, athletic teams about to begin their seasons, families celebrating a wedding or the arrival of a new baby.

Families would come into his home, excited about capturing a treasured moment and leaving with a physical reminder of it to take home with them.  Think about the pictures you have hanging in your own home.  Maybe you have a picture of your family at the beach or a picture of a newborn baby being welcomed home by his or her siblings.  Maybe you have a picture of grandparents and grandchildren celebrating a birthday.  Or maybe you have a picture of a great achievement, a graduation or a team hoisting up a trophy.  Regardless of what pictures you have hanging up, I’m willing to bet that you can tell a story about each one.

I love looking at pictures and reminiscing.  It’s fun to look back and remember the wonderful memories that have been captured from our past.  My nieces and nephews love looking at our photo books from when we were kids and they want to know the story behind the pictures (as well as comment about our crazy hair styles and out of date clothes).

In our collection of old pictures at home, there’s a black and white picture of my great, great-grandmother, Sophia, as a young 19 year old holding a coyote pup.  As you can guess, there’s a story behind this picture.

Coming from Hell, Norway, she migrated over to the United States with her family.  Eventually, she found herself living in Minnesota with the Pillsbury family as their nanny.  When there was an opportunity to homestead in the neighboring state of South Dakota, she went out by herself to settle the land.  While out in no-man’s land, she befriended a coyote pup.

Eventually, Sophia married and this same pioneering spirit brought her to northern Illinois where she operated a hotel and started a nursing home in a small town called Stockton.

Sophia’s journey to Illinois effected my life.  Though I never met Sophia personally, my dad ended up marrying her great-granddaughter, Kim, my mother.  Sophia’s daughter, Genevieve, (my great-grandmother and the little girl in the picture above) was a fiery woman with the same spirit as her mother.  When Sophia’s home-run nursing home became full, Genevieve was asked to take in two male patients into her own home.  She did so and from then on spent her life calling in taking care of the elderly.

I have a picture of my great-grandparents, Genevieve and Warren, on my refrigerator.  Though they are no longer with us, I can’t help but smile when I look at their picture and am reminded of all the great memories we shared with them.  Memories of long talks about religion, politics, elderly care, family life and farming.  Memories of working beside them as one year someone decided to put in an acre of strawberries that my siblings and I had to help with.  I enjoyed my time with these two great people as they changed not only the way I thought but ultimately how I lived my life.

I look back at Sophia, holding a coyote pup, in amazement of God’s providential hand.  You see, our stories are like puzzle pieces.  By themselves, each puzzle piece seems random and insignificant.  The picture of Sophia with a coyote pup is one story, one piece, which makes up the master story.  The intricately woven stories (no matter how insignificant they may seem) of our lives make up God’s story.

Everyone around us, before us and yet to come, are pieces that lock together in telling God’s great master story.  My piece to the puzzle, God’s master story, has thousands of “pictures” on it.  Meaning, decades and decades of people, experiences, trials, failures, and success, which make up who I am today.

What’s your story?  How have you seen God’s providential hand at work?  Have you shared your stories with your kids?  Share the stories about your childhood with them.  Share with your children what you loved to do when you were their age and the people that influenced you.  Share with them what God has done for you and them.  For your story is a part of your kid’s story and their kid’s stories.

The greatest story ever told, of course, is God’s story.  The Bible gives us stories from the creation of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The beginning of the story – the beginning of THE Story – goes back to creation. If you believe that God created the world, then you believe that there’s a master story – a metanarrative – that is unquestionable. This metanarrative sets the controlling principle of your life.

The metanarrative of the Bible is God’s self-revelation to the world.  All the stories that make up the Bible ultimately reflect God’s “master story”, in which God is revealed to His people, through the Creation-Fall-Redemption motif.

Each of us have a significant role to play in God’s master story.  God created us with a purpose.  He didn’t have to put us in His story but He did!  How you can use your life story with a purpose to inspire and encourage your family, neighbors, community and the world to glorify God?