Knowing the Author of the Journal
Journal 2004 12 21
Knowing the Author of the Journal
My Dad, Eugene Cinkovich, keeps a daily wall calendar. On it he notes the weather, birthdays and any other events of significance. Never more than a few short phrases. Every so many years old calendars will get reviewed and those of us who lived in the house will laugh and cry as we remember the events noted and the concise manner in which they are recorded. His is the only record of most of those events.
As I read the journal entries from the Corps of Discovery I can’t help but picture those same dynamics as we review the journals for a sense of what it must have been like to be on one of history’s greatest adventures. The thirty-one men and one woman of the expedition would certainly see the journals with more life than we possibly can for the simple reason, like the Cinkovich family in Auburn, WA, they were there. The small notes trigger the greater context of the events and the unrecorded portions related to them.
Today’s journal entries note that the thermometer is climbing from –74 four days earlier to +16 today, a virtual heatwave! If we only read today’s entry we would think that it was cold and 16 degrees below freezing. In context, in the stream of time, we see that sometimes 16 degrees can become relatively warm. Those who lived in the camp would all have memories evoked around the record of the –74 degree day on the prairie.
Several men attempted to hunt bison during this time but discovered it was just plain old too cold. In the modern world we know it was extremely dangerous to be out in that temperature. The slightest mistake and a visit from Mr. Murphy would mean death. Four days later the same mistake may go unnoticed with no penalty because the conditions changed.
We are reading a book at church, a big book, 66 books bound as 1, containing a record of people and time. Are we reading it as a look at God’s journal? If we are, that is good. However, we are missing something if we only read it as a journal. He tells us to read it as a family member. He knows we were not present when Moses held his arms in the air and the water parted and the people walked through on dry land. We also did not see Noah build the ark, but we are told of the event not as a story, but as an account recorded by one who was there. He knows we cannot know exactly how we would have acted had we been in the crowd when Pilate brought Jesus out before them. But we are told the story from one who was there.
Scripture is recorded for our benefit. It is recorded for us to know the “family history” that we have been adopted into. The Holy Spirit was ever-present and chose to record the events we read about that we would know our Father, and His Son through His Spirit. The “Living Journal” serves us in this manner through His perfect design.
I know my father and have a sense of what he recorded and how it tells a much larger story. It helps me to trust the story my Father in Heaven is telling me regarding my adoptive family.
God’s Son is called the “Living Word”, the embodiment of the record. But the Bible is more than a record. It, like God, is eternal. I AM is His name. Always was, is and will be. Not past, present and future as we know it. Only now. Everything is now. A concept we really don’t understand.
When we read the Bible we must see it as more than a record. We must allow it to have life and live and breathe in, around and through us.
Like the short recordings of Gene Cinkovich tell a story that the family remembers, let the Word of God tell a story that each of us as part of the family not only remembers but sees as a living record, current guide and future agenda for life as a member of God’s family.
Knowing the Author of the Journal
My Dad, Eugene Cinkovich, keeps a daily wall calendar. On it he notes the weather, birthdays and any other events of significance. Never more than a few short phrases. Every so many years old calendars will get reviewed and those of us who lived in the house will laugh and cry as we remember the events noted and the concise manner in which they are recorded. His is the only record of most of those events.
As I read the journal entries from the Corps of Discovery I can’t help but picture those same dynamics as we review the journals for a sense of what it must have been like to be on one of history’s greatest adventures. The thirty-one men and one woman of the expedition would certainly see the journals with more life than we possibly can for the simple reason, like the Cinkovich family in Auburn, WA, they were there. The small notes trigger the greater context of the events and the unrecorded portions related to them.
Today’s journal entries note that the thermometer is climbing from –74 four days earlier to +16 today, a virtual heatwave! If we only read today’s entry we would think that it was cold and 16 degrees below freezing. In context, in the stream of time, we see that sometimes 16 degrees can become relatively warm. Those who lived in the camp would all have memories evoked around the record of the –74 degree day on the prairie.
Several men attempted to hunt bison during this time but discovered it was just plain old too cold. In the modern world we know it was extremely dangerous to be out in that temperature. The slightest mistake and a visit from Mr. Murphy would mean death. Four days later the same mistake may go unnoticed with no penalty because the conditions changed.
We are reading a book at church, a big book, 66 books bound as 1, containing a record of people and time. Are we reading it as a look at God’s journal? If we are, that is good. However, we are missing something if we only read it as a journal. He tells us to read it as a family member. He knows we were not present when Moses held his arms in the air and the water parted and the people walked through on dry land. We also did not see Noah build the ark, but we are told of the event not as a story, but as an account recorded by one who was there. He knows we cannot know exactly how we would have acted had we been in the crowd when Pilate brought Jesus out before them. But we are told the story from one who was there.
Scripture is recorded for our benefit. It is recorded for us to know the “family history” that we have been adopted into. The Holy Spirit was ever-present and chose to record the events we read about that we would know our Father, and His Son through His Spirit. The “Living Journal” serves us in this manner through His perfect design.
I know my father and have a sense of what he recorded and how it tells a much larger story. It helps me to trust the story my Father in Heaven is telling me regarding my adoptive family.
God’s Son is called the “Living Word”, the embodiment of the record. But the Bible is more than a record. It, like God, is eternal. I AM is His name. Always was, is and will be. Not past, present and future as we know it. Only now. Everything is now. A concept we really don’t understand.
When we read the Bible we must see it as more than a record. We must allow it to have life and live and breathe in, around and through us.
Like the short recordings of Gene Cinkovich tell a story that the family remembers, let the Word of God tell a story that each of us as part of the family not only remembers but sees as a living record, current guide and future agenda for life as a member of God’s family.
posted by @2007 Dick Cinkovich | 11:29 PM
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