Is That True?

My grandpa liked to tell stories to make his point, or sometimes just to amuse. Oftentimes his stories went from being reasonable to hilariously fantastic. When I was five or six years old, I usually responded to his stories with the question, "Is that true?" He always answered in one of two ways. If his story had simply been told to amuse, he would grin and say, "Well if it's not, it ought to be." But if his story had been told to make a point, he would say, "Well, it might not be totally factual, but it is most certainly true."

The truth he was getting at was usually truth about human relationships, truth about how good, decent civilized people ought to, in his view, conduct themselves. His stories had to do with kindness and fairness and hard work and compassion for those in need. They were homespun Aesop's fables, entertaining his grandchildren while forming them as Christian people.

God is our "Grand" parent, desiring that we have truth in our inward being. It is not surprising that God chose stories as the way to teach us holy wisdom. Stories about Creation and fall, slavery and freedom, fear and courage, faith and failure, sin and salvation. Stories full of saints and scalawags, heroes and cowards, prophets and heretics. Stories about us, in other words.

One time I asked Grandpa about Jonah and the big "Is that true?" He looked me in the eye and said, "Son, don't rightly know. But I'll tell you what I do know. Most of the people arguing about that are missing the point of the story, which is if God wants you to do something, you may as well go on and do it. 'Cause you can't run from God, boy. You can't run from God."

—Delmer Chilton
in the Sunday Bulletin of
Mystic Side Congregational Church
Everett, Massachusetts
August 2, 2009