Sometimes when reading a good story, a single sentence will stand out and cause your thoughts to wander to other things. Such was the case recently as I was reading a Sherlock Holmes tale called “The Engineer’s Thumb” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In introducing the case, the narrator and Holmes’s friend, Dr. Watson, makes this statement:
The story has, I believe, been told more than once in the
newspapers, but, like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking
when set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the
facts slowly evolve before your own eyes and the mystery clears gradually away
as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads on to the complete truth
(Doyle, 213).
The resonance of this statement not only provides a good
example of how fiction can be just as much a vehicle for truth as nonfiction can
be but also leads us to consider how it might reflect an even deeper idea
regarding the way in which the greatest Storyteller operates in relation to us.
Essentially, Doyle (through Watson) is pointing out that a story’s end makes
more of an impression when it is not revealed until—well, the end. Furthermore,
he suggests that the details of the story are essential to a full understanding
of it as a whole.
We intuitively know this, as is evidenced by our general
dislike of spoilers and our (especially women’s, it seems) propensity to want
to tell every part of a story instead of just “the bottom line.” We admire
storytellers who masterfully lay out more and more pieces of information throughout
the telling instead of hitting us with everything at the beginning. Even those
stories that start in the present and then flash back to tell the backstory
illustrate the importance of the preliminary details to our understanding of
the story’s conclusion. Think of the excitement you get from books or films that
cause you say, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming!” or “Oh, so that’s what
that line meant! I get it now!” This all illustrates that we appreciate
storytellers who gradually reveal.
So why don’t we appreciate that about God?
When it comes to the story of our lives, we encounter a
myriad of plot twists and a lot of seemingly mundane occurrences. Sometimes we
wish we could jump to the end and see how it all turns out. We know that God
knows how this curveball or that confusion, these disappointments or those delights,
fit into the narrative of our story, but sometimes we wish He would share what
our life looks like from His point of view. Sometimes we wish the Storyteller
would reveal not gradually but all at once. And now.
But when we think about our lives as a story that’s being
written, we begin to see the gradual reveal of events’ relevance as an evidence
of the mercifulness and graciousness of God. God is merciful in not
preemptively showing us how all the pieces of our story fit together, because
frankly we wouldn’t be able to handle it. I can look back on my life now and
see that certain sorrows were not nearly as unbearable when they came because
of previous sorrows that God had used to grow and strengthen me in different
ways. But if I knew at the point of those previous struggles that part of their
purpose was to prepare me for other hard things? Let’s just say I would not
have appreciated it.
But because of God’s gradual revealing of that purpose, not
only am I able to draw strength from it instead of being drained or crushed by
it, but also I am able to marvel at God’s magnificent plan and praise Him for
His wisdom. And that’s where we see His grace.
We don’t deserve anything from God but judgment, and we
certainly don’t deserve answers to our questions regarding the exact reasons
for everything that happens in our lives. But God in His kindness chooses to
give us glimpses every now and then that we don’t deserve, glimpses of how He
is working in our lives through the circumstances and relationships that make
up our story. He allows us to see that it was because we went through that
trial, that we were then able to face this loss. It was because I met this
person that I got involved with this group and then met this person, who
changed the entire direction of my life.
In helping us see these things over the course of time, God graciously
invites us to look upon the magnificence of His character. He draws us into
deeper relationship with Himself as we come to love and appreciate Him more for
Who He is—the all-wise, all-knowing, Supreme Storyteller. And one day, when we followers
of Christ come before His presence for all eternity, I have a feeling that the
conclusion of the story of our time-bound life will be all the sweeter and
richer for our having lived through the gradual reveal of details that led our
story Home.
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