Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Parable of the blue and red shirts

There once was a young man named Cody. He loved his God very much. One day his mother gave him a red shirt to put on, but he refused. He said "I would rather wear no shirt at all than a red shirt." His mother, seeing his great wisdom, gave him a blue shirt, and they all wore blue shirts, and God was pleased.

This story for me is an illustration of why we need to be scripturally literate, and not simply except all scripture at face value. Imagine going forward in time to the year 4005, and trying to discern meaning in this story. Would all Christians wear blue shirts? Or would the story be ignored?

If an historian, or cultural anthropologist looked into the story, and was able to figure out the approximate time and place of it's writing, they may deduce that the red and blue shirts might signify the Ohio State and UofMichigan rivalry in the midwest. It might be discerned that this is a tribal, cultural story, and not one of God's preference of color. Or an even greater truth may be discerned. Go Blue!

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