I was reading in Genesis tonight when I noticed a little note at the bottom of my Study Bible that said about 40% of the Old Testament is poetry. For some reason, this really struck me and it put into perspective why we may have been, as a highly rationalistic people, somewhat mystified by the OT and found it pretty lacking when it comes to understanding God in a systematic, scientific way. Thus, we have pretty much written it off, except for some interesting stories that make for good Veggie Tales movies. I'll admit that I am relatively ignorant when it comes to the nitty gritty of the Old Testament. But I do know enough to realize that we have in our hands not a nicely lined out, consistent explanation of God and theology, but a huge messy collective scrapbook put together over a span of centuries by a small, ridiculously weird band of people. And it is a masterpiece. A big, mysterious masterpiece glued together by some messed up people -- but with the fingerprints of God all over it. The picture I see is a stern, yet kindly old man sitting amongst a group of small children and letting them draw pictures of him. A lot of the works are simplistic, some don't match, some are torn up and put back together, some are drawn by one with the ideas of another... but, end the end, the old man gathers them all up, binds them together, and proudly presents it to the next group of children as his biography. Why would he do this? Because he loves what his little children do for him. And besides, he is still sitting in the middle of the next group, and not going to leave any time soon.