Several months ago I changed the way I did things and in the meetings I had each month was a six year old child who came with her dad. I asked the dad if he could work with his daughter to tell one a story from the Bible. Her dad told me she was excited to help tell the story.

What Tom shared encouraged me more to further my study and to consider how to teach better by putting the pieces together so people understand God’s story. With the elephant story it reminded me that stories provide much more than the pieces. Years ago I was challenged to preach the stories Jesus taught. As I began to do that I got some interesting responses. Those stories do not provide the arrogance some desire so they can look impressive as the Pharisees in Matthew 23:15, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” The Pharisees were increasing their number.