Lindsay and I have been reading Avery a story every night before bed from her Karyn Henley Bible (thanks Mrs. Jane).
Last night as I read to her the mildly morbid story of Noah and the Ark, I was reminded of the words of Frederick Buechner.
"This is really as dark a tale as there is in the Bible, which is full of dark tales. It is a tale of God's terrible despair over the human race and His decision to visit them with a great flood that would destroy them all except for this one old man, Noah, and his family. Only now we give it to children to read. One wonders why."
Any ideas why a seemingly sad story is such a popular kids story?
Posts
4 comments:
hey luke its jacob harrison
try to guess which cowboys players name you can spell using the letters in avery's name
The comment is a bit delayed.... but I don't have your cell or email.... shoot me a line. But when we got Avery's birth announcement - it was on the island the next morning eating breakfast and Jacob said "look you can spell .....'s name with the letters in Avery's name - I guess that's why Luke picked that name." We think of you guys often - and hope all is progressing well with your work for the church plant.... Go Gators! I know you'll be wearing your orange and blue. I guess you know that Tebow, Percy and Urban have 5 letters just like Avery, Chief and Chloe.... pretty neat - don't ya think?
you're going to give your daughter nightmares. Now that I think about it, there never were any drowning souls in the Little People's playset of Noah's ark, or disastrous flood scene murals painted on preschool walls. I don't think I've ever heard a sermon on those outside the ark. Just warm fuzzy animals.
looks like you've got a good topic to preach on; I may try it out at youth group too.
k
Kurt- I will let you preach on it first. I did preach on Noah a year ago when preaching through Genesis-
I like another line by Buechner about what was happening outside the Ark during the flood- The chaos outside the Ark probably wasn't any different than before, only wetter now.
Ooh, I like your comment on chaos outside of the ark a lot. Good stuff Luke. It's hard to believe that we have domesticated this story so much. I mean God initiates the first genocide, I find that there is so many levels to this story, first is disorienting that God would do this, but then there is that line of God grieving over what He was about to do. It's a story that doesn't resolve, and seems to be okay with not letting us have a happy ending. But we tend to ignore that because it's a floating zoo story. Anyway, good post, and cute picture (Avery, not you).
Post a Comment