The Old Testament & The New Testament

Today I had the opportunity to talk to a sister who reads the bible daily both old testament and new.
She said some interesting things when I asked what she got out of the old testament.

"The old testament is about a vengeful God. He created man to be loved and obeyed, but man was not capable of doing that. So he became a vengeful God. He realized that man was not capable of living up to his expectations especially with the devil left to do his thing. So that's where Jesus came in. Jesus represented a chance. It was God giving man a way out. Knowing he could not follow his will, he gave us Jesus, for if we could accept him, as a man, then man could find salvation."
"Jesus was perfect, but a man, but perfect as the son of God. The thing he did that no other human could do, was follow God's will. he lived in God and followed God. he knew that he was going to die and be on the cross and three times (in the book of John), when he's in the garden, he tells God he doesn't want to go through with the plan."
"There are so many messages in this. God's son was forsaken, tried, convicted, beaten and crucified. So there is no one who suffers, no one who is lowly or forlorn or forsaken, where God does not love or see. How can anyone suffer and feel that they are forsaken, when God's own son and our savior suffered as much as any being?"

This last point resonated with me, having read Uncle Tom's Cabin. Harriet Beecher Stowe makes a clear reference to God in the person of Uncle Tom. his ruthless beating, his refusal to "repent" for that which is against his principles, and the acceptance of his fate and forgiveness of his persecutors, even the conversion of his persecutors from the power of witnessing his quiet suffering and the power of his faith.

My experience with reading the old testament has been pretty disappointing. Yes, there are some good passages, and it's an interesting history, but I have found it generally to be devoid of much religion. It is more, in my mind a cultural document and an interesting living history of the evolution of religious ideas and the reinterpretation of mythology as religion.

It's beautiful to hear personal stories of faith, just as it is beautiful to hear personal stories of any human experience.

For me, Christianity is much like the moon. This huge undeniable, indelible image and reality within our lives that forever remains as a enigma, except for those fleeting moments when either by faith, or transcendence, the truth and beauty shines through.

One day, I will come to love and accept Christ fully. Not Jesus Christ. Not the Catholic Christ, but the Christ of Slave Row. The Christ of the lowly and forlorn. The Christ of Faith and Salvation. The Christ of the meek, of the last. The Christ of God.