That is a great way of putting it. The Bible is what happens when God allows his children to tell his story\u2013which means the biblical writers told the story from their point of view, with their limitations, within the cultural context in which they wrote.<\/p>\n When children tell the story of their father or mother, parents are typically\u00a0delighted\u00a0by how much they get and the childlike way that they see the world. But they are also well aware that children miss a lot when they tell the story, and invariably refract the\u00a0complexities\u00a0of family life through their own youthful vision.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a perfect analogy, I know, but roll with it: Think of\u00a0how young boys talk in the schoolyard about how great their father is. They are ways of telling the story to make sure everyone knows they have the best dad around.<\/p>\n I remember telling my middle school mates that my father was an engineer who left a promising academic career before coming to America. He also knew a lot about guns, since he was in World War 2, and killed bad guys left and right.<\/p>\n That story was genuinely connected to my real father, but honor was at stake. How I told the story was dictated, unwittingly, by rules of the schoolyard.<\/p>\n My father was a blue-collar machinist (not engineer) who wanted to be a school teacher (not academic), but World War 2 got in the way. He was in the war, but I didn\u2019t dare let on that he did not fight for our side. He was born in Russia, was captured by the Germans, and was forced to be a German-Russian translator (and therefore a German soldier). He also hated guns, since his community in Russia was pacifist Mennonite. But he won a turkey shoot when I was young, a fact I exaggerated and incorporated into my narrative.<\/p>\n But I never mentioned the many things my father did that were also heroic but not quite as exciting\u2014like coming to all my little league games, working long hours to make sure we kept a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, and cars to get around in even though money was very tight. Had I talked like that, it would have fallen on deaf ears.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peteenns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Al-groves-1.jpeg?ssl=1\" "\\"Al")
<\/a>My seminary Hebrew professor, former colleague, and friend, Al Groves, who is of blessed memory<\/a>, was a wonderful, honest, and pastoral man. When dealing with the theological difficulties that arise in the course of reading the Bible, Al would say, \u201cGod lets his children tell the story.\u201d<\/p>\n