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My grandma is a storyteller. Not just a person who enjoys telling an occasional story, but she really loves telling them and is very good at it! She tells silly stories, sad stories, happy stories, funny stories, and all types of stories you can imagine. She even tells stories on the TV channel for the senior community where she lives. She’s been a member of a Story League where she lives for many years now. It’s a gift that she has which she really enjoys sharing with others.

Stories are important to us because they help us remember events. Our brains like to hear things in a logical sequence, such as in a story. We all know that “Once upon a time...” commonly begins a story, and “they lived happily ever after” often ends one. The events in between are in the order they would happen, so we can put ourselves into the story and pretend as though we’re living it ourselves.

But what does that have to do with this week’s word, gospels? Well the gospels are stories about the life of Jesus. We have four gospels in our Bible - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, with each gospel named after its author. Each writer had a different way of looking at the same story - that of the life of Jesus. They all tell the same story of how Jesus came to earth, taught others, healed the sick, and lived out the prophecies about Him that He would die on a cross and be raised again. Even though each tells it from his own perspective, they all tell that same important story.

We get our word gospel from the Greek word, euangelion (you-an-GEL-ee-on). Literally, euangelion means “good news.” The story of Jesus is good news - the best news in fact, because it can provide you with an eternity in heaven with God! The gospels are the story behind that short-and-sweet bit of good news, and they expand on it just like my grandma includes plenty of details when she tells a story. That same Greek word is where we get our word evangelism, which means to tell others about our faith in Jesus.

What have you done with the gospels lately? Have you read them? Have you told others about them, and encouraged them to read the gospels as well so they get all the details? I challenge you today to pick one of the gospels and read it all of the way through, just as you would read a story or hear one told. It is truly the best story you will ever read.