When you’re reading a good novel, your mind gets caught up in the plot line of the story. In your mind you start to develop a mental picture of what the main characters look like. You imagine the male hero as tall, ruggedly handsome and the heroine as breathtakingly attractive female. Your mind thinks of them as healthy, young and vibrant.
If the novel becomes a best seller and a movie studio wants to turn it into a movie they bring together a producer, a director and hire a casting company. The casting company will help them fill the different parts in the script. It is crucial to make the right call on the individuals who play the lead roles if the movie is to be a box office success.
The day has arrived when the cast for the movie’s main characters is revealed. Producers, directors, studio executives wait breathlessly for the reveal. Having read the script they each have in their minds the perfect look for each part. Finally the novelist along with the casting director walk in followed by the actor and actress who will play the leading characters. But when they turn to see who has been tapped for these most special of roles, the thud of their collective jaws hitting the majestic mahogany conference table muffles their mutual groans.
There before their wide eyes, instead of the expected vibrant, young couple with gleaming white teeth and tanned and toned bodies, stand a 75-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman. Not what they had pictured for their production.
But that is exactly what the author of “The Story”, God does. His screenplay called for a couple to launch a new nation, one that would impact the entire world. As He would say, a nation, through whom "all the nations of the earth would be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3).
Abram and Sarai stand there, adorned perhaps by dusty old robes and crowned with wispy white hair, loosely fitting skin and as befuddled as anyone else. God chose them to begin a nation. An unlikely pair, especially after factoring in the reality that Sarai was barren. How could God expect to start a nation with a woman who could not bear children?
To complicate the story line, it will be 25 more years before they actually have their child of promise. By that time Abram and Sarai will be 100 years old and 90 years old, respectively (and their names will be changed to Abraham and Sarah). And the rest, as they say, is history. His story.
God picks people you and I wouldn't necessarily select to take part in his story. In fact sometimes we are shocked who plays the starring roles in His stories. Unlike the way we do business, God taps people, not merely because of their abilities, but for their availability. God searches for people who are open to be used by Him. Since He uses only those who are willing to be used for His purposes, there is no doubt that it is He who is orchestrating the miraculous events. Let there be no doubt, throughout history God is the one making things happen.
That's good news, isn't it? By the world’s standards, you may not have a great pedigree. In academics, you may not be an honor roll student. You may not earn a great deal of money and you may have average looks. But, then you are sitting in a very good position to be a top pick for one of God's life changing stories.
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