"Confine not yourself always to one sort of company, or to persons of the same party or opinion, either in matters of learning, religion, or the civil life, lest, if you should happen to be nursed up or educated in early mistake, you should be confirmed and established in the same mistake, by conversing only with persons of the same sentiments. It is said, when the King of Siam first conversed with some European merchants, who sought the favor of trading on his coast, he inquired of them some of the common appearances of summer and winter in their country; and when they told him of water growing so hard in their rivers that men and horses and laden carriages passed over it, and that rain sometimes fell down almost as white and light as feathers, and sometimes almost as hard as stones, he would not believe a syllable they said, for ice, snow, and hail, were names and things utterly unknown to him and to his subjects in that hot climate. He renounced all traffic with such shameful liars, and would not allow them to trade with his people. See here the natural effects of gross ignorance." -Isaac Watts It amazes me the more I ponder the wonder of the scriptures and the fact that they are stuffed full of mystery, humanity, sacredness and a multiplicity of journeys that all seem to weave together like a divine mosiac that say something eternal and yet...so relevant to earth. The use of story and all the elements, genres and ingredients of the craft are called upon to tell something more profound than anything ever spoken and yet as common as anything ever experienced.
The kingdom of God is like...
There once was a man...
Camels crawling through needles...
Boys eating in pig pens...
Finding buried treasures...
Dragons, four faced-multi-eyed angels,
gates of pearls, cities without suns, dead people coming alive, naked people having picknics in the garden, people eating thier children, old folks making babies, talking animals, men going to the bottom of the ocean in sea creatures bellies, flying pegasus of fire carrying prophets into space, fortune tellers, witches and ghosts from beyond, sordid love affairs, heart breaking murders, vile sinners and inspiring saints...
Who wouldn't be intrigued about such a path...?
All the stories we know or themes that we retell...seem to be shadows of the greatest story unfolding...the characters, villains, heros all seem to be but a reflection of their greater counterparts. In fact the more we read and come to understand within the scriptures the more we see that we too are found within its pages.
Simply amazing if you really meditate on it.
(props to Fred and Melanie for the quote and added inspiration in this post)
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"You must turn, then, back to myth---tomorrow and the next day and the next...You'll need everything that helps you see with the eyes of your heart, including those myths, and the way they illumine for us the words God has given in scipture..." -John Eldredge
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