When We Don't Understand -- We Write Stories

Isn't that what mythology is really all about?

In our history discussion yesterday Mrs. Dorman brought this up. It is so true. It's not that the Egyptians were stupid. Their mastery of logic still boggles the minds of our best engineers. But they didn't know the Creator and all their logic couldn't explain the consistency of the rising and setting sun, the changing of the season, or a sick person getting well.

They were created in God's image. God roots these mysteries in story -- so they had to do it, too. They didn't have a choice. It was how they were made.

After this discussion I saw this with my own eyes -- alive in our "enlightened" world.

With my little band of beauty hunters we were exploring the front lawn of the church on our way to the pond to collect cattails. With a burst of excitement one of the boys discovered something really cool. Right there in the middle of the grass they found this:

The ants made it -- I'm sure of it! JS

I think something fell from sky and broke the ground. JM

I think that a big bird with a strong beak traced his foot in the dirt. GS

I think a bear made it. KS

Oh how I wanted to laugh with joy at their delightful imaginations! Here they were -- my own little mythologists -- telling stories because it was the only way they could explain this new thing.

Of course, there are scientific explainations for spots of cracked dirt in the middle of the lawn. We can study and learn of them in our age of information. But can those explainations make sense everything?

What about the beginning? What of the mysteries of Beauty, of Truth, of Wisdom? What of faith, of hope, of love?

In His goodness, God gave us logic to make sense of much of our world. In His love, He gave us a God-breathed story - our very own mythos - to make sense of the rest. In His grace, God gave us a Comforter to teach us to see Him as the source of it all.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

Hebrews 1:1-3 (ESV)