Jeremiah 31:2 – A God-Centered Story

2 Thus says the Lord:

“The people who survived the sword
Found grace in the wilderness—
Israel, when I went to give him rest.” Jeremiah 31:2, New King James Version

Alfred Hitchcock is purported to have said drama is life with all the boring parts cut out.

Aspiring to captivate more expertly in this season with the glory of God as a writer, I surmised there were a lot of dull bits in my story. From a wheelchair, many of my dramatic moments come in encounters with books. Hey, look at that, I bauble as I search for somebody's attention to draw, somebody's wonder to tap into. It's a life different than that to which most people readily relate.

Thus, I launched an effort to replace my dull bits with plot points from the lives of others. Believing I could simultaneously deepen relationships, build readership, and mine for content that would more readily engage those on the periphery of understanding their part in God's story, I began to send out the question that was going to be writing on to family and friends.

My mother, it turns out, was my mirror.  She walks God's path on two good legs, has more visible action to show for her faith as she has, by grace, pushed its boundaries to serve babies in the nursery and the needs of homeless men. In this instance, though, she was interested in insisting on God's story in MY story.

Queried for proofs she can reflect on of Christ's goodness as her Shepherd, she asserted, "I KNOW my Shepherd has protected you in more times than I know about. He has guided you through difficult situations. He has strengthened you in the hard times. And he has blessed you with a beautiful, loving wife, good friends, and a faithful church. I know these things without a doubt. These things don't just happen on their own."

Well, yes. But we wriggle as recipient, don't we? We want recalled the more action-oriented scenes. We point to God's part AFTER others have seen and acknowledged Him acting THROUGH us, rescuing others less empowered or enlightened. Ink my narrative, and I'll give God a whole page of acknowledgment. Cast my movie, and I'll put on a tux and give Him glitzy glory at the Oscars. The ramp-up to that aspiration for the Story of Us still pulsates with out aspiration to star.

If this is true of people as individuals, how much more true collectively? Bundle our hopes, and we talk about human heroes, even while giving the margins of verbal deference to God. Ask us what our tribe or nation's story is, and before long people's strong arms and strong hearts take center stage.

That's what makes God's designation of His people in Jeremiah 31:2 showstopping, and then, showstarting. He calls them, and us as Christians grafted in with Abraham's promise, "The people who survived the sword." That's not the text we would write for the movie guy with that booming voice to intone in the commercial voiceover. "They survived the sword."

God, could we fast-forward a little bit from our days as Egypt's victims, saved solely as You drowned them, sword in scabbard? Could we splice together some scenes from the days of Joshua? There's more action there. It catches our good side. It highlights our active part, makes clear for the moviegoers the difference between Us and Them. No? You want grace as a found condition in the wilderness and not something we reach or realize because we win or because we are smart? Some movie. Raspberries await.

The Christian, ego still intact if in rearguard reluctance, has much the same argument with God. We want the S on our chest to stand for Super, not Survived the Sword, with its emphasis on helplessness and absolute dependence on God's Sovereign intervention.

We would edit out our wilderness chapters altogether. They slow down the story. They interpose unwanted mystery that is hard to summarize and snappy dialogue. We fear that unless we telescope, truncate, or eliminate the reality of the wilderness, we will lose viewers who would surely be more captivated without streamlined, and self-centered, succinct version.

When we don't get the narrative we want, when God keeps insisting on story renderings like this, we still hope for a Big Finish that will leave the movie-goers viewing our lives whispering as they exit the theater, maybe even applauding as the credits roll. We bargain,, Lord, if I confess that I am a Sword Survivor a little more often, if I use that G-word grace throughout and admit in life as well as word that I depend on You, You will give me a scene that shows grace in action?

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. That's not the audience reaction when we don't get to tell the us-centered story that our flesh craves. That IS the Big Finish of the story God insists on in His treatment in Jeremiah 31:2. He rates differently. He DELIGHTS in going before His people and giving us places to rest. What makes, we fear, boring copy and dragging scenes has Heaven captivated. Way to nap, Elijah! Did you see the Son of Man so trusting His Father, destined to be restored to a real Fatherhood relationship with the humans He draws, that during that big storm He was ASLEEP in the boat? In the angels' eyes, ever darting for how to serve the Godhead well, that might have been one of Christ's most magnificent scenes.

God provides so steadily, friends, that we underrate or even denigrate His constancy. We go looking into other people's stories because we grow too accustomed and underwhelmed with His Presence in our own. Tell the story more often, brothers and sisters, that He tells in Jeremiah 31:2. Tell it to ourselves, to our restless glory-thirsting souls which will one day be slaked in knowing Him as He is and ourselves as we are. Might our interactions with men, then, be the overrun of such a satisfied heart. May we be so besotted with the reality that He provides for our bread and our rest that we can't help but bubble over with reminders of that to those He keeps in our sphere.