The Ultimate Story

Jesus per­son­i­fies what human­ity has been think­ing all along. The prob­lem was that we could only con­cep­tu­al­ize it in bits and pieces. It took the actual event to make it clear. He is what we all are when we fully grasp our human­ity; we just have not rec­og­nized it. The sto­ry­lines that lead up to his birth are found in a vari­ety of cul­tures. To this day, there are still major world reli­gions search­ing the eyes and actions of small chil­dren in search of a per­son of his qual­ity. Cul­tures based in West­ern thought are inher­ently “mes­siah story dri­ven.” We do not know why. We just notice that we are.

One author said that Chris­tian­ity is not the pret­ti­est pic­ture of the human story — just the most real­is­tic. It is bloody. It is messy. It seems to most accu­rately por­tray human hope and despair — its causes and solu­tions. Peo­ple reject it only to act it out in other forms…but with much less style.

Is it our story because we keep telling it to our­selves or because we are “hard-wired” for it? Is it in our genes? Does some Cre­ator cre­ate the yearn­ing itself then present the ful­fill­ment? The hand and the glove are both givens in the story. Peo­ple are like ducks to the water when they fully com­pre­hend what is truly tak­ing place.

Sec­u­lar ver­sions of the church abound. Peo­ple seek teach­ing, rit­ual, and com­mu­nity. Like minds enjoy being together. How­ever, the trump card is in the hands of those that pos­sess the story that is truly the solu­tion to the rid­dle of death. Chris­tian­ity is much less a reli­gion than it is a phi­los­o­phy about life that never ends. Yes, it has a com­mu­nity form, but it is more of a door­way to absolute hope and supreme relevance.