Another way to write an origin story is to wait awhile. Batman comics did this. The comic series started off with some dude in a costume running around with a magnifying glass, dusting fingerprints to find the bad guy. Weird, right? You have no idea why is doing this. Was he home-schooled and never got the memo that capes are not half as cool as they should be? Maybe he was just a pedophile with a bat fetish who solved crimes as a way to woo the hearts of little boys in green speedos. Without an origin your mind can conjure up some pretty weird stories. But once the story is out, you realize that "oh he has daddy issues that makes sense".You understand him.
The third way can be the most annoying, but if used right is the most effective. Its where the reader is only given snap shots at a time that are relevant to the furthering of the story. Wolverine used this style. It allows for a certain amount of change. The enough of the story is told to get you through this event. Just enough so you how he is thinking and how you are to connect with him at this moment. This way you are connected to the element of his personality needed for the moment. You know just enough to keep you from thinking he is a home-schooled with too much time on his hands. He stays a mystery to a point.
I think God likes to write with the wolverine style. He like to be a mystery. We are not able to understand him. He flat out tells us such in Isaiah 55:8. He gives us just enough insight to Him and His heart for us to get by. In one story He will show His lover side. In another His warrior side. Just enough so we can be connect to Him in this story, but we will have to keep pursuing and reading in order to find out more.
I was reading the other day with the author was talking about God, and all of a sudden I had this surreal moment. I read the word God and I was at a loss. You know how words have images or feelings that pop open when you read them, I had none. I read the word "God" and nothing popped up. "Who is God? Why is this name deserving of glory? What image could I use to try and understand?" was all I could think. I first though of some guy with a sick ZZ Top beard, but knew that this would not work. I then remember what the author had said earlier of God being a young lover, so an image of a young man came to mind. But with both I felt as if something was missing.
Until we get to heaven this will be a consent process of trying to understand what God is and looks like. Whenever we conjure up an image of God we will always be missing something. Moses tried to see God, but only was able to see His back because of how un-understandable God is (Exd 33:23).
Who is God to you? What does the word God mean to you? Daddy? Lover? Warrior? Glory? Grace? Mercy? Your guess is as good as mine. We just have to trust that the part of the story God is reveling to us now is enough, and that once that we master that element He will grace us with another for us to try and grasp.
