Do you stare at those stereograms sometimes? Here's one to look at for a while. Well, I've been looking at Romans for years, asking myself how to make sense of it. I would read it through and come away with two conclusions, it's death on sin and high on grace.

That's not a bad outline I guess. But this week I began to see a little broader picture, maybe a deeper one. After starring at it for so long I began to see it as a story. It is the story of salvation. The first verses start with grace, then comes sin, then comes the turning or repentance, then comes the salvation, then come the struggle to stay close to God, then comes the tree surgery or grafting in of Israel, then comes the fellowship of the saved. It begins to go stereoscopic x 3. Don't forget early on in the first chapters, that the gentiles were brought into the story as well.

Anyhow, Romans is beginning to take on new depth, new color, new texture to me. I never thought of it as a story before. Now I do. It's a story that repackages the Gospels in word form. The Gospels were more video stories or photo journeys. Paul makes the story more of a word picture, but story nonetheless.

Actually, if Paul wrote his story earlier than the Gospels were written, then his might be the first written story of Jesus and His plan for living life to the fullest. Check it out in a Bible near you, something to stare at for a while.