Acts 13:16-19

How Does It All Fit Together?

A Question of Story

How do all the pieces fit together? Why did this happen? What did that mean? As life unfolds, we are always left with these questions. We are trying to make sense of everything and craft a story that makes the most sense out of the facts we have. When we do this on our own, often we are left confused and make false assumptions. When we do this work in community with others, we make fewer mistakes. But when we do this work in community with God taking the main role in the story, then we have clarity on the purpose and direction of the story.

As we ask the question, “How does this all fit together?”, we will read a sermon that Paul shares in Pisidian Antioch. In this sermon, Paul tells the story of God’s people from the wilderness to the person of Jesus. This is the story that we fit into as well. Our story is not only our story. Our story is a minor detail in God’s grand story.

Today, we read of the time of Israel from their time in Egypt through their entry into the Promised Land. One thing that I find important in these four verses is the amount of time that these verses take. Four hundred fifty years! A lot of the time in our stories, we want things to happen fast. But this story takes generations. This story takes centuries. This story takes millennia. God’s story encompasses all of history and all of time. Our lives play a small role in that story. Let’s envision how our lives fit into God’s story.