In the film, The Tree of Life, these words are whispered as the agonized plea of a mother suffering the loss of her nineteen-year old son. How is she to make sense of this tragic twist in her story? What sort of a God would allow this to happen? Does He care? Is there any meaning to it all?

As his answer, film maker Terrence Malick draws us back at length to the creation of the world, and concludes with a preview of the re-creation of the world: the new heavens and the new earth, the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. In other words, Malick gives us a glimpse into the life of a Texas family from the 1950’s, and artistically expresses his conviction that we can only begin to make sense of their particular story once we have seen that it is embedded in the larger story of God and His world.

The point for us: We can only begin to make sense of our stories once we view ourselves as participants in God’s story.

“God’s Story, Our Stories” is a fifteen week overview of the whole Bible, beginning with Genesis and ending in Revelation. Of course, this series won’t be comprehensive! Rather, we will be looking at select passages that illuminate how the Bible unfolds as a coherent story of God’s relationship with humanity and His world: Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration.