There are classic stories and longtime fairy tales that everybody knows. But there are also lesser known accounts sprinkled about, awaiting discovery.
Perhaps you’ve stumbled upon one—a child’s book you adore or a well-written novel for the study. One of many reasons I love reading the Bible is that it is full of both.
There are the classics. Noah built the Ark. Moses parted the Red Sea. Daniel survived the Lion’s Den. Widely circulated narratives of heroes span Joseph’s coat to Esther’s beauty, Samson’s strength to Peter’s boldness. One doesn’t have to be a scholar to recognize the names Samuel, David, Mary, or John.
But amidst the main characters and larger-than-life dramas, some are tucked away. Tamar, once wrapped in a scandal, found herself in the lineage of Jesus. Onesimus, once a runaway slave, became a faithful servant. Joanna was numbered among the devoted women of Christ’s ministry.
Furthermore, some remain nameless. Yet their stories are told to remember them and glorify God.
You may have heard of the woman at the well, the man born blind, or the girl raised from the dead, who have become known by such descriptions. Sometimes, my mind dwells on their stories a while longer and imagines what it was really like for them.
They occupy a few verses, paragraphs, or pages of Scripture, but they were people full of hurts and hopes. They browsed the market, conversed with friends, swept the floor.
One of my favorites is recorded in Mark 5. Jesus sailed across the sea to perform one miracle for one man—completely transforming his life forever. And we don’t even catch his real name.
“When Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones … And Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion, for we are many.’”
So possessed was this man that his entire identity was shrouded. But Jesus commanded the demons and they fled.
“And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.”
That man became the first evangelist for his community. I look forward to meeting him in Heaven, along with countless others standing by his side as testimonies of God’s limitless power and saving grace.
And still today, each and every one touched by the Savior becomes one of those stories.
