“Oh, silly rabbit, Trix™ are for kids.”
That was the slogan for sugary Trix cereal that made me ask Mom to please, please buy some when she went to the grocery store; she rarely did, but that’s a story for my shrink. 😉
So, after many decades I still think, “Oh, silly rabbit.” when someone asks for something that is not for them. “Daddy, can we go up to the highest diving board thingy and jump off?”, says a six-year child to her parent. “No, honey, that’s for big kids.”, says the parent, thinking to themselves, “I wouldn’t make half-way up before I puked.”
Unfortunately, some people feel that way about the Bible; it’s not for them. They may have five Bibles in their home but never read any of them. Bryan Chapell, the pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church, made this insightful comment to people that think the Bible isn’t for them. He said, “Do you view the Bible as a disconnected series of moral tales interspersed between impossible commandments, woven into a maze of mysteries that somehow produces a message about a nice Jesus in the New Testament to counter the mean God of the Old Testament?”
The Bible is unique in all the world for it lives. It lives because it is the Word of God; Jesus is that Word (John 1:1). Jesus lives, and He not only causes His Word to live in the Bible, But He also desires to live in us and through us. There’s an old hymn that has this chorus:
He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart.
Here is are two cohesive points of the Bible I want to bring out:
1. Regarding God the Father, He is not the mean father of the Old Testament. Notice what the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write in Galatians 4:6, “Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” [i.e., Daddy, Father] Jesus suffered and died on the cross so we could know our Abba, Father. That doesn’t sound like a mean dad.
2. Red letter Bibles are helpful, but they are a bit misleading. I say this because the whole Bible, from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21 is the living Word of Jesus. If you don’t just read the Bible, but you dig, study, connect the dots, you discover an astounding, plan. You see, the Bible is about God’s love, played out on the stage of Adam’s history, for the redemption of people that desire to be in God’s family and for the full restoration of God’s Creation.
When you understand these two aspects of the Bible, then it all fits together. For, you see, Abba Father has not left us to fend for ourselves. He is our Father, and He cares for us. We know this for certain for when Jesus, the Son of God, returned back to heaven Jesus didn’t leave us as orphans but sent the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, to us, for us, so that God would be in us and lead us into all Truth (John, chapter 14).
The Bible is for kids, even grown-up kids. Now that’s good news.
Trix™ is a trademark By General Mills, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13401815
