I’ve been thinking about how stories create containers for truth by bundling up profound truths in a succinct way. Like think the Good Samaritan, which I’ll be talking with Amy about. In my Bible this story is only 199 words. Under 200! That’s like a couple of paragraphs. And yet Amy’s book is not the only volume written about this story. I’ll bet we could fill up shelves with all of the ways human authors have tried to unpack this one story and grasp what it is teaching us about God and about how we’re to relate to each other.

Stories are retrievable. Just think about the most recent sermon, book, or podcast you’ve read or listened to. Which is easier to remember: the abstract truths or the stories? I can’t prove it, but I believe that God uses stories to convey truth because he first created us to be story-driven creatures. He made us. Doesn’t it make sense that he would know best how to package up the truths he wants us to remember

I think of each story like a velvet pouch with a draw string, filled with theological gems. When you learn the story, it’s like gathering up treasure. And the story is the velvet pouch, which holds it all together. By filling the shelves of your mind with these stories, you are storing up truth that you can easily retrieve and give away.