“People have always told stories as they searched for truth. As our ancient ancestors sat around the campfire in front of their caves, they told the stories of their day in order to try to understand what their day had meant, what the truth of the mammoth hunt was, or the roar of the cave lion, or the falling love of two young people. Bards and troubadours through the centuries have sung stories in order to give meaning tot he events of human life. We read novels, go to the movies, watch television, in order to find out more about the human endeavor. As a child I read avidly and in stories I found truth which were not available in history or geography or social studies.”

“Let’s recover our story because we’ll die without it. It’s a life-giving story–this magnificent narrative we find in Scripture–if we are willing to read openly and to read all of Scripture, not just passages selected to help us prove our point. The God of Scripture can sometimes seem brutal, see through the eyes of the early biblical narrator, who is looking at the Creator through crudely primitive eyes. But the God of Scripture is also the God who refused the nuke Nineveh, even though that’s what Jonah wanted; who forgave David for a really staggering list of wrongdoings; who wants only for us stiff-necked people to repent and come home; who goes out into the stormy night for the one lost black sheep; who throws a party when the Prodigal Son returns; who loves us so much that God did indeed send his only begotten son to come live with us, as one of us, to help us understand our stories–each one unique, infinitely valuable, irreplaceable.”

“We tell stories, listen to stories, go to plays to be amused, to be edified, but mostly so that we can understand what it means to be a human being. Jesus was a story-teller. Indeed, according to Matthew, he taught entirely by telling stories. One of the great triumphs of Satan has been to lead us to believe that “story” isn’t true. I don’t know if all the facts of the story of Joseph are true, but it is a true story. That is very important to understand. Jesus did not tell his parables in order to give us facts and information, but to show us truth….Story is the closest we human beings can come to truth. God is truth. God is beyond the realm of provable fact. We can neither prove nor disprove God. God is for faith.”

“Stories, no matter how simple, can be vehicles of truth; can be, in fact, icons. It’s not coincidence that Jesus taught almost entirely by telling stories, simple stories dealing with the stuff of life familiar to the Jews of his day. Stories are able to help us to become more whole, to become Named. And Naming is one of the impulses behind all art; to give a name to the cosmos we see despite all the chaos.”
Glimpses of Grace by Madeleine L’Engle

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“If scripture is to become my teacher, I must put on each story like a robe to be worn,    identifying with the characters, walking in their shoes, feeling with their hearts.”
Seasons of Your Heart by Macrina Wiederkehr

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