detail

I am too picky about The Bible. No, not the authorized version on my nightstand. I mean the television series on The History Channel. I’ve loved some parts of it. Like the butt-kicking angels in the Sodom & Gomorah scene.

But I catch myself saying things like, “Samuel didn’t anoint Saul with a horn! He used a flask! He only used a horn for David!”

Ummm. Yeah. I’m a detail snob.

So, I had a little talk with myself. Sometimes the details are vital. If I’m talking about the difference between being chosen by God and being appointed by man, the horn and flask detail might matter.

But if I’m trying to tell a 10,000 year epic in twenty hours, horns and flasks might be interchangeable. (I couldn’t even nail down that detail, for goodness sakes. Everyone has a different time span from Genesis to John the Revelator.)

In truth, I should be cheerleading for this mini-series. I complain all the time because too many people don’t know the Bible as the history of a people. We see it as chopped up Sunday School stories with no connection except in the coloring sheets and crafts.

So far, this series is giving us the big picture of God’s people. It has connected Adam and Noah, Sampson and David, and several people in between. It may succeed in showing us the Bible as our story, our family history, in one big, epic sweep. Minus a few details.

And it might send a few people back to read the book-the-movie-is-based-on. I’m good with that.