TOLD. An Original Bara Series. 

Whether you're aware of it or not, our lives are stories. Characters come and go, settings change with time, and the plot twists in ways we never could have predicted. We laugh, we grieve, and at times we wonder whether we’ll ever reach our “happily ever after.” 

Some parts of our story are painful. Other pages are penned with pure pleasure. We all have a few chapters that we want to stay closed. But stories, unlike secrets, are supposed to be shared. Stories come alive when they are told.

Everyone has a story and every story matters to God.

Jesus loved stories too. He was the master storyteller. He’d say, “Hey, did you hear the one about…” and then tell a parable to teach a truth.

In fact, the Bible shows that storytelling was Jesus’ favorite technique when speaking to the crowd: “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.” (Matthew 13:34)

Somehow we forget that the Bible is essentially a book of God-inspired stories! That’s how God has chosen to communicate his Word to human beings.

C.S. Lewis once said, “We read to know that we are not alone.” The same is true of stories. When we hear stories, we know that we are not alone. But in order for a story to be heard, it must be told.

Jesus also spoke in simple terms that normal people could understand. He didn’t use theological jargon. It’s easy to complicate the gospel, and of course, Satan would love for us to do just that. The apostle Paul worried that “your minds would be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” (2 Cor. 11:3 NASB)

We need to remember that Jesus did not use the classical Greek language of the scholar. He spoke in Aramaic. He told stories using the street language of that day and talked of birds, flowers, lost coins, and other everyday objects that anyone could relate to.

TOLD: What Stories Are Meant to Be.