The Book of X-Ray

My daughter reported on Facebook that my grandson Padyen had just quoted to her the first five books of the Bible… “Genesis, X-ray, Dennis, Numbers and Deuteronomy.” A good friend of the family responded with tongue in cheek that their favorite book was X-ray. One would assume because of its revealing content and radiant vocabulary. I personally like the book of Dennis… especially the chapter where Mr. Wilson catches him red handed… literally red handed when he got into Mr. Wilson’s red paint. All kidding aside, the two things that I take away from this family lore are: 1) I’m thrilled that my grandson is learning the books of the Bible and 2) These books that he is learning the names of are ancient voices of witness that bear the stamp of inspiration but are reflective of the messenger.
It is that last point that I hope someday that Payden will delight in as he begins to discover not only the names of the books of the Bible but finds himself in the stories of faith. I recently heard someone speak of the first time they found a contradiction in the Bible (they were puzzled by Matthew saying there were two men at the tombs when Mark and Luke said there was only one, Matt.8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39). They finally decided that Matthew was telling it from his perspective and the other two were more interested in the man of the tombs who Jesus cast out the legion of demons. There are four gospels not because they were trying to correct or fill in one another’s stories but because there is an infinite amount of ways to tell the one story! And often it is a matter of seeing it from a different perspective (hence Matthew focuses on parables especially of the kingdom while John many years later gives us the intimate conversations between Jesus and disciples).
A couple of Sundays ago while the youth group from Gresham were conducting services Greg Woods suggested that people ask his wife Dottie about how she broke my collar bone. For some reason that resonated with me in a way I had never entertained before. You see, that’s always been “my” story and suddenly I realized that Dorothy had her version of the same story as well (probably not as painful as my version but an interesting side of the tale as well). Now I’ve said all this to simply say this… my prayer for Payden is that as he grows in knowledge of the Scripture and develops his faith that the story of the Bible becomes “his” story! I know that one of the greatest joys of my life is finding myself alongside Elijah running ahead of the chariots of Ahab and besting a bear with David on the hills of Palestine. I muse myself with poking Peter in the ribs as we joke about how some of the things Paul says are hard to be understood and I achingly weep at the foot of the cross with John and Mary and others. And time and time again I am convicted of my sins and amazed at the magnitude of grace as I listen to the ancient voices of faith tell their stories! -DAN