I remember being taught at school how to write a curriculum vitae. We meticulously wrote (by hand in those days) our classes and exam grades and details of after school jobs. Many years later the details that were so important to my earlier self just clutter up a page full of so many other things which have filled my life thus far. Things that were in exquisite detail thirty years ago, now disappear under a broad brush-stroke.
Like many Biblical characters, we do not know much about Barnabas. Details of his personal history and family are left to conjecture using the small pieces of information which are given to us in the Acts of the Apostles. We know he accompanied Paul on his missionary journeys and Paul describes him as an Apostle. Generally it is thought that he died a martyr in Cyprus in AD 61.
It would satisfy my curiosity to know more about Barnabas but it would not change the summary purpose on his Resume which was to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. His journeys were arduous and telling this story of his faith, dangerous. We have no idea what he thought as he woke each morning or the prayers which fell from his lips as he fell asleep at night.
The question I find myself asking is, if there were no details about my height and eye color, about my relatives and friends, what would there be to write about? Is my life absorbed in minutiae which will be lost to time, or is it given to telling a story which time cannot contain?
Caroline+
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