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Talking Donkeys and the Meaning of Life -a reflection on the Bible by Amanda Roper The fantastic animated film Shrek presented an innovative new perspective to the world of fairy tales and introduced the world to Donkey, a mule with the ability to talk. However, DreamWorks loses some of its credit for originality as I can reveal that talking donkeys are nothing new: Numbers 22:21-41 reveals a fascinating story of a man called Balaam being verbally reprimanded by his donkey except this is not recorded as a fairy tale but as an historic event God certainly moves in mysterious ways. A talking donkey is an excellent example of the huge variety of stories, literature and historical events to be found in the Bible. It is so sad that such a wonderful book is very often classed as irrelevant and boring. God, through the Bible, provides a guidebook for our lives, and his rich and varied character is clearly revealed through the depth and breadth of the material that we find within the 66 books. We can read of the prophets living radical lives for God, speaking against social injustice, often against a backdrop of an oppressive regime. Song of Songs records a romantic encounter between a man and woman, graphically describing their love for one another. Psalms records beautiful poetry, both worshipping and pleading to God, while Proverbs provides us with timeless words of wisdom. History, literature, and many fantastic stories of bloodshed, hate, lust and the love of nn ever-faithful God are recorded in the Old Testament. The New Testament is also a source of diverse and remarkable writing. Who can rend the words and teachings of Jesus without being both moved and challenged? Who can hear the truth of the gospel without offering a response? The energy and excitement of the rapidly growing early church is captured perfectly by Luke in Acts, while Paul 's letters and teachings to the many New Testament churches also offer us support, as they are shown as struggling with issues that also sound familiar in a 21' century setting, such as hero worship, apathy, sexual promiscuity and love of money. Even complex issues such as the future are dealt with in Revelation, Isaiah and I Thessalonians. Indeed, the Bible does not shy away from difficult subjects; we can read about sex (1 Corinthians 6), suffering (Job), murder (Genesis 4) and gossip (James 3) and much more as God's people struggle - and often fail to follow His will. And it is these accounts of real, believable people that really help me to make such an ancient book relevant to my ordinary daily life. Again and again we see God working through ordinary people, people who are not perfect but instead are well aware of their own inadequacies, people like Moses, David, Peter and Pau I. Yet through God's great love for them we see these average people being redeemed and doing great things through the power of our great God. There is no denying that the Bible can be a difficult book to understand, but for those who delve deeper, they will find the most varied and brilliantly constructed book that has ever been written. It is even better than the script for Shrek... Amanda Roper Published in the December 2002 edition of the Church Magazine
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