Our earliest primative cultures gathered around the fire in the evening and told the stories of their culture and what had happened in the hunt or the garden that day. The important and significant stories were remembered and passed on, just as they are in our families and communities today. Stories capture the essential meaning of our lives. They tell us who we are, where we have come from. They inspire us and challenge us.
Stories have great power.
And many have recognized this. Bruno Bettleheim has written about the power of fairy tales to shape our understanding and psychological development. Campbell has written of the power of symbol and myth in our lives to express ultimate meaning and to affect how we actually live. Scripture, of course, is story. It is the story of people who have experienced God in their lives and how that has impacted them.