If someone asked me what I liked best when I was a child, it might have been hearing stories. When Mom tucked us in at night, she told us a story—such as Little Red Riding Hood or The Three Bears that she told from memory. Then every week at Sunday School, the teacher read a Bible story. I still love a good story.

Here we are in a new lectionary year (A). What stories will we explore this year? Do you have a favourite story you like to hear again and again? Might it be the story of Jesus’ birth, or the feeding of the five thousand? Just think of that second one a little longer. It comes up in August.

Imagine five thousand people gathered for a meal. The verse  in Matthew 14 reads:

²¹ The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

People sitting on a hillside, waiting to see what would happen next. Jesus is talking with his disciples.

¹⁷ “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

¹⁸ “Bring them here to me,” he said. ¹⁹ And he directed the people to sit down.

Watchful of the teacher and what he would do, and probably feeling tired from travelling on foot and hungry, they sat down. Maybe they’d eaten all the food they brought with them.

Can you even imagine what they might say to each other? After all they likely knew there wasn’t a banquet coming, maybe a simple lunch.

²⁰ They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

If one were trying to imagine the details, there would be much to uncover. But we’re not given those details. We’re given bare bones of a fantastic story, of a miracle Jesus performed. And we know that after this amazing feat, Jesus went off by himself to pray.

Did the people understand what happened? The disciples didn’t always understand, but Jesus often took time to explain parables to his followers.

This is storytelling at its best, imagining the details and getting into the story to understand it better. And taking somethin away to ponder further. A good story does that.

www.carolynwilker.ca

Storytelling at Open Doors

Look at a photo, imagine a story there.