The Un-Series: Week 1 Day 4
Romans 15:4 (ESV)
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
A semi-regular conversation in our home involves the parents ruefully observing how different their childhoods were compared to their kids’ experience. It’s remarkable how much has changed in a couple of decades. Then I think of how the world has changed in more ways than I know over the thousands of years that cover the events in the Bible. The question can’t be avoided: How is the wisdom of ancient people still relevant to our modern lives? Scriptures were written by and for people who experienced and processed the world completely differently.
The more I read, however, the more I realize how very little has changed. The questions these writers were asking remain the same, deep inquiries that haunt the quietest moments in modernity:
Why does life matter?
How do I handle the frustration of injustice?
What does it mean to be good or evil?
What does it mean when it’s hard to see the difference between good and evil?
The Bible doesn’t answer these questions in the way we’re used to. It’s never been a simple book of rules, facts, and formulas; rather it’s an acknowledgement that life is a lot more complicated than that. The Bible is a collection of truths that remain present throughout the course of humanity.
Whether we’re sharing stories around the fire, across streams of data, or through frail and timeless pages, we encounter God’s wisdom, present now as it was then. As we see redeeming love claiming victories in the past, we know how to recognize the same in our daily lives and learn to see hope for a world restored.
Today, let’s pray for connection to those who came before us, who are with us now, and who have yet to witness the glory of God’s goodness on this earth.