Father God,

Today, I pray that we as Your church would not separate the human story of the Bible from the doctrinal teaching of the Bible. One of the easiest distortions to fall into for both preachers and hearers is to focus on one or the other. At the extremes of these ditches, we can probably see the problems, yet we seem to miss the early divisions which cause us to lose sight of the beauty of the Word.

Excessively focusing on the doctrinal truths or the technical debates over things like Jesus telling Mary Magdalene to not cling for He had not yet ascended to the Father, is not wrong, but unless we also gaze upon the distress of Mary who only wanted to return Jesus’ body to its rightful tomb, we can lose sight of Jesus’ humanity in His care of her.

Solely focusing on the human story of the Bible can also lose sight of the Truths that God conveyed through that story. We have truths in the Word that we will spend our entire lives delving into if we desire to know Him. Those Truths are the foundations through which we interact with our Creator, our Lord and know our God.

It is in the coming together of the divine and the human in Christ Himself which gives us hope for eternity. When we allow that union of the divine and the human to then interact with us in the human story of the Bible, we can know beyond head knowledge that He interacts with our present earthly story. We are drawn into the full reality when we gaze at both the human and divine.

Christ was a real human walking in real earthly history, and as the risen Lord, still walks in our earthly reality. Let us revel and rejoice in Christ’s deep, abiding, and comprehensive presence in our daily lives that did not end with the close of Scripture. Though we may never fully comprehend this union of the divine and the human in earthly reality, may we pursue its fullness with joy.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.