We are the makers of stories.
We are the listeners of stories.
We desire stories in everyday life.
We are the believers of stories.
We are stories.
Why are stories important to any human's life? Why do I study and teach literature for a living?
I truly believe that stories are deep set into the heart of humanity, and we thrive on them. Every great story has a certain drama to it that we need to feel and be a part of, and we taste the goodness of community with one another by telling and sharing stories about our lives every day. If stories seem so important, then doesn't it make sense that they truly are necessary for life, and for the bigger picture of redemption?
Scripture tells us that God revealed his son, the Word (John 1:1) to a fallen world in desperate need of redemption. However, we had no idea we needed to be saved from anything, because we are so focused on our selfish desires that we would never have a desire to know God apart from his grace reaching out to us and making us alive from the death of sin. And how is this all revealed? In the perfect, true story of God's plan of salvation. Do not most stories contain some kind of conflict that must be solved with a type of hero who is the only one that can save the princess (or whatever it may be)? Creation/Fall/Redemption. The story begins, something goes wrong, and something must fix it. How beautiful it is that although we are completely lost in a jungle of death and pain around us, down so deep in a well of darkness that we could never even see a light on our own, that the Father mercifully takes us out of pits of despair and brings us into his marvelous light! Just like a prince in shining armor rescues his lady, so Christ redeems his church unto salvation. He is the only one who completes the story that everyone has tried so long to create and end happily. Although life is not made of happy endings, we are hidden in Christ's grace and must live in light of that -- the greatest story ever told.
And so, I see literature through the light of the gospel -- I must, for all other stories fall short. Themes are universal because every human heart is the same at its base; we share the same desires and defeats, and for true literature to make sense, we must see it in the context of THE story of perfect redemption.
