I heard a beautiful quote today that there is only one story in all the world. Every literary work of beauty tells a version of this story.

The story starts out with danger and peril, with terrible things in the future of the narrator. There is a dilemma from which he/she cannot extricate himself/herself.

The story gets darker and darker; the peril looms larger and larger.

Then the hero of the story comes. He has impossible odds against him. He wants to rescue the narrator. The narrator hopes he can.

Something happens to the hero to make things seem totally hopeless. It looks like he has failed.

But just when things seem darkest, the hero arises in triumph. He rescues the narrator. Out of a hopeless situation. Hope and rescue have come.

That story really happened once. In Christ. Have we let Him rescue us?