John 21:24-25
I am re-reading the book Dakota by Kathleen Norris. In it she tells of an Indigenous girl in her class who one day was writing continuously all during class. At the end of the period, the girl came up to her with a whopping twenty sheets of paper filled with writing. Ms. Norris looked at the many pages and remarked with astonishment at the many, many poems. “You must love to write,” she said. To which this girl responded, “I don’t have paper at home, so I keep them in my head. That’s where they [the poems] live until I write them down.”
You and I carry many stories, poems, and pictures around with us. They tell us and others who we are, what is our heritage, and what lies deep within our souls. They reflect our faith, our convictions, and the things that really matter to us. They are stimulated by the experiences of each day—what we see, hear, taste, and feel.
It is also stories remembered, shared, and eventually written down that inform us about who Jesus is and what God is up to in our world. The last words of the Gospel of John say, “This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” I, for one, am so glad that those early followers of Jesus wrote down the remembered accounts. An old Sunday School song I love reflects this: “Tell me the stories of Jesus, I love to hear; Things I would ask him to tell me, if he were here.”
Do we write down and/or share with others the poems, thoughts, and experiences we have with God in Jesus? Do we sing the stories of Jesus around the house? Do we read the Bible regularly so that we feel totally connected to God’s story, embracing the hope and salvation God offers? Do we tell others of God’s love for all of God’s creation? The Easter season is a great time to do just that!
The students of the Faith and the Arts class at Faith Lutheran Church will be sharing their expressions of their faith through their art, crafts, poetry, and music on Sunday, April 30th. Others will bring items found in their home that inspire them daily. I can hardly wait!