Fairy Tales

I was reading a book about the Chinese people, Christianity, and Communism. There was a comment in the book that Chinese people rely heavily on pictures and symbols to convey meaning. For example, a man has a old, beautiful, 200 year old tree in his yard. Someone (not his friend) may come along and cut down the tree. The meaning: leave town or your family roots will die when I kill or hurt you. (Remember, that Chinese families are only allowed to have one child, so if a son dies then that is the end of his family heritage.) In other cultures, I think that speaking in analogies is common also.

But when I hear an analogy or some other word picture, I am usually too dense to figure out what the meaning is behind the story unless someone gives me a clue. I wonder how many other people (particularly Americans) do not pay attention to the meanings behind a story (especially when the story does not have "real" characters). We have fairy tales of the ToothFairy, Santa Claus, etc, and then there are make-believe movies, which we have learned to not believe. There are fiction novels which are not true, however many fiction writers write with an underlying purpose in mind. So basically, we do not like to put a lot of thought into anything unless it comes from our own experiences or perhaps for academia. But how do we know when something REAL comes our way?

Jesus also spoke using simple word pictures to make the connection to greater things. He spoke of hidden treasures (Matthew 13), lost sheep (Matthew 18), seeds bearing fruit(Matthew 13), and unfaithful workmen (Mark 12). We can come up with some simple moral for each of his "stories", but the main point of these was not in a simple moral for everyday life, rather it was for us to know and understand who he is and what our relationship with him should be. He gave these to us to know how we may enter into the kingdom of heaven. So if all that you know are the simple morals that Jesus taught, then you are truly missing out. Please search out the truths in the parables of Jesus. A few hours of searching now may save you a lot of heartache in the future!

-Taylor