The Long Story

Some of my readers from a few years ago might remember that I tell my boys the Long Story. I start with the fist Day and go until they fall asleep, which usally happens somehere around the Flood or the Tower of Babel. Thursday, Anselm was playing with a treen statue of the Holy Prophet Moses that my Dad bought in Bethlehem during his pilgrimage. Anselm asked me why the top half of the staff was shaped like a snake. So, I tried telling the story of the Exodus but he asked, "How did they become slaves?" So I had to talk about Joseph being prime minister of Egypt and how his family came to Egypt to escape famine. But my son asked, "Why did joseph go to Egypt?" So I had to el him about the coat of many colors and about how his brothers sold himinto slavery. (boy was he shocked by that.) but then he asked, "Why was Abraham was in Cannan anyway?" So I had to start over with the sojourn out of Ur of the Chaldees. But the questions kept coming and he wasn't satisfied until I took the story all the way back to the Flood. It was kind of funny. He wanted to know exactly how it fit together. But I;m the same way. I suppose that's part of why I am Orthodox. I am thrilled every year when we stand and listen to the recitation of Jesus' entire geneology. And I love being able to identify the Orthodox through every century from Jesus' Holy Apostles on. To be able to look at Iranaeus, Justin, Ignatius, Nicholas, Athanasius, Patrick, Basil, Gregory, Photius, Cyril... and be able to say "See all those guys? I with them." The story is old and long but the parts are not lost to us.