Sometimes I forget that the people from the Bible actually lived. Movies and television have warped my mind to think of things fictitiously first. That default mentality crosses over into my bible reading where I consciously and intentionally have to remind myself of one truth: these were real people experiencing a real God.
These are not characters on a screen. They were flesh and blood; bone and breathe. I forget sometimes that their feet hurt from walking and their bellies sometimes gurgled. I forget that they got colds or that they sometimes woke up on the wrong side of the pallet.
They put their tunics on every morning one sleeve at a time.
They argued with their spouses and yelled at their children.
They experienced fear and discouragement.
They even had ugly-girl laughs.
Not only do I forget that they were real people, but sometimes I forget that the God to whom they spoke is the same God whom we speak with today.
Wait.
Stop.
Don’t let that sentence slip haphazardly from your mind. Let it pierce your soul.
When you pray…you are standing before the same God that Moses stood before in the Tabernacle.
When you sing…you are praising the same God that David praised with his harp.
When you cry out…you are crying out to the same God that Jesus cried out to on the cross.
How can we live our lives knowing that simple truth and not be changed forever?