an Author loves details.

Some of my fondest memories of my dad came from the times we had working together. I grew up going to jobsites with him as soon as I was old enough to know how to run a vacuum. The time I spent working with him steadily grew as my skill grew in holding a paintbrush, wielding a roller, and running sanding machines. Eventually, after high school, I was working for him full-time. It was the best way to make money...any other job couldn't pay as well. 

During our early years of work together, we had plenty of disagreements and arguments. These mostly stemmed from his perfection in work quality meeting up with my stubbornness and lazy work ethic. So when the prospect of me working for him full-time came up, neither of us thought it would actually turn out all that well; we both saw more disagreements and conflict in the future. What actually did happen was better than we both could have imagined. We bonded. Really well. 

It was an truly incredible thing, as I grew in age and maturity, I saw my dad start to treat me with more respect: as a man. And that affected me in a way that spurred me to treat him with more respect. Funny how that works. What ended up happening, from my perspective, was another relationship grew. Not only was I my father's son, I was becoming his friend, his coworker, his brother? How weird does that sound? But it's true. He is my brother in Christ. 

Trust that was built allowed us to both open up to each other about things in our hearts that we previously hadn't really shared with each other. For me, that looked a lot like things with the girls in my life. But it was also many things regarding my faith in Christ: questions spread across the whole spectrum. I like to ask a lot of questions. For dad, it involved sharing things about his relationship with my mom, and it was refreshing to see for once a more accurate picture of what their relationship looks like. Or for that matter, what any relationship might look like. He also shared things about our previous church and the difficulties he faced there with being a deacon and being involved in leadership. But also, my dad allowed me to hear the more intimate things that were on his heart with his relationship with Jesus. 

I remember. For some reason it is such a clear memory; he would tell me that he just didn't feel important. In the grand scheme of things, in God's master plan, who was he? He told me he felt small, that he read the Bible and compared himself to all the characters. He was no David, he was no Moses, he was no Paul. I remember him saying that he felt like he was supposed to be doing something bigger. 

Fast forward to today. 

Dorothy and I have been reading 1 Samuel in the Bible. Why did we choose that book? Don't ask me. I think I was remembering parts of David's story and how much I liked it, and wanted to read it again but this time with a partner. We have not finished it still, and I'm pretty sure we started 9 or 10 months ago. Slow-going. 

Reading the Old Testament is hard sometimes. When I read the Bible, I mistakenly think that I need to get some kind of life-application out of every time I read. This makes reading one of the letters in the New Testament especially satisfying. The NT books are full of commands, of do's and don'ts. But the Old Testament is just....story. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of moments when reading that my eyes spot an analogy: Yes! This story is so similar to Jesus!  Look at how this points to him!  Those moments are thrilling. It's as if I was given a book of clues, and I am a detective finding them all and connecting the dots. But at the same time, there are so many bizarre things in the Old Testament, you have to ask yourself, "Why the heck is this in here?

Thinking back on that conversation with my dad, I don't think he was paying attention to the whole Bible. 

Let me explain. I'll use the story of David because that's how this realization came to be for me. If you know the story of David, this will sound familiar. Chosen as a boy, a young shepherd to replace Saul, the now corrupt king. David kills Goliath, the people praise him, Saul becomes jealous. Before David actually becomes king, there is chapter after chapter of David fleeing from Saul while Saul tries to take his life. And reading this story chapter by chapter, there have been times where Dorothy and I would finish reading, and all we would have read was a section talking about the location in the wilderness David chose to hide in. It's kinda boring, actually. I remember finishing one night and saying to Dorothy, "Welp, I have no idea why that story was included." 

It was the very next time we opened the Bible to read that I understood something. These other "big" chapters that so clearly display Jesus and the cross through the life of David, they would mean nothing without backstory! David killing Goliath would mean almost nothing if you didn't hear the uneventful explanation of how he was a teenage shepherd boy. David eating the holy bread would mean nothing without the details of him fleeing with his men to escape Saul's jealousy. David sparing Abigail because of her repentance, then marrying her, would mean nothing without the same backstory. I was so excited to have found a reason for these chapters with boring and inapplicable details, I told Dorothy all of this. These boring parts are just supporting details to make the story of God's salvation for us that much more incredible. 

When I told my thoughts to Dorothy, she responded with such beautiful wisdom. She listened, was quiet for a moment, then said, "That means the parts of our lives that are boring or seemingly unimportant actually are important in God's eyes." As soon as she said it, I knew this was the final point to all of this. 

We have a God who is huge. He is infinite, magnificent, and brilliant. But we can't use those character traits to prove that he is unconcerned about our small lives. In fact, the smallest parts of our lives are the proof that He does care. We have a Creator that has written the most intricate and detailed story of all time. The climax of this story happened 2000 years ago, and all the tiny parts of life that existed before then, and continue to exist now are what make that story of Jesus on the cross that much more amazing.

The problem we have is taking things out of context. An uneventful story in the Bible may seem boring or pointless when it is read by itself. But in context, the details are strategically placed to make the story as a whole more impactful. For me, this encourages me to remember on the days where I feel insignificant, to remember that there is a bigger story at hand, and that I can trust the Author. It also encourages me to look at the people around me, and the moments I find myself in, and remember that they are all important details too. God cares about the smallest things. He designed the smallest details with purpose.