Teller Of Tales

   Riding freight trains.  Working sawmills.  Picking cotton.  Felling trees.  Pouring molten steel.  These were just some of the stories my Grandpa told.  He didn’t tell them in a dry, matter-of-fact way either.  Like Mark Twain, he made even the most mundane thing sound like an adventure that many people would pay to experience.  As a small child, I was convinced that every word Grandpa said was the absolute truth.  As I grew older, I began to think they were outrageous tales told only to amuse.  By the time I got into my twenties, I discovered, by talking with numerous relatives, that each adventure was indeed factual.  I began once more to see Grandpa with the eyes of a child enthralled by the adventures of his life. 

   Perhaps you, too, have met someone who allowed you to explore depths of adventure through his life story.  He allowed you to vicariously see and experience things you might never have seen or done otherwise. Granted, to some his stories were nothing more than tales, fables or fabrication.  But to you, because you have eyes that see beyond words and a heart that believes, his stories are the very fabric of life.

   I sometimes wonder if this was not the difference between those who followed Jesus and those who didn’t – eyes that saw beyond words and a heart that believed.  Without doubt, to those who did not possess such ability, Jesus could easily have been considered nothing more than a teller of tales.  The very idea of God taking the form of humanity, walking among us, taking our sin upon Himself, dying in our place and being resurrected three days later is the stuff of tall tales – unless it is true. 

   Two thousand years of history bear witness to the truth of what Jesus said and did.  He came exactly as the prophets predicted.  He did the very things they said He would do.  He was verified to be a truth-teller in His life, His death and the profound impact He has had on the world since.  Indeed, throughout the generations since Jesus walked the earth, countless individuals have given their lives in support of the Truth He spoke.  Only a crazy person willingly dies for a lie.

   There are still those, like the Pharisees of old, who think the story of Jesus being the God-man is the fabrication of a deranged mind.  He was, if He existed at all, nothing more than a teller of tales.  But as I discovered with Grandpa, sometimes the most outlandish stories are the most true.  And they are the ones that will impact your life to the greatest degree – if you have eyes that see beyond words and a heart that believes.