Q & R: Chapter 21?

Here’s the Q:

We are in chapter 21 in We Make the Road by Walking and I was wondering what direction you were going when selecting 2 Samuel 11:26-12:15. Significant & Wonderful is the title and I’m just trying to dig deep into how the fall of David and prophetic word of Nathan connect with the overall theme.

Here’s the R:
Thanks for asking about the 2 Samuel passage. The paragraph that made the connection between that text and the theme got edited out – a glitch that needs to be corrected in a future edition. Here’s the connection – whether Nathan’s story about a rich man stealing a poor man’s lamb actually happened or not, its meaning has a real-world application.
Similarly, whether or not a person believes this or that miracle happened, the story still offers rich meaning. Some of us find it easy to believe in miracles, and others don’t, but that doesn’t mean we can’t sit down and search for meaning together.
Here’s how I’d like to change a paragraph on p. 98 to clarify the connection:

Questions like these show us a way of engaging with the miracle stories as signs and wonders, without reducing them to the level of “mere facts” on the one hand or “mere superstition” on the other. The parables of Nathan in 2 Samuel or of Jesus in the Gospels told the actual truth whether or not they were factually true. In the same way, miracle stories stir us to imagine new ways of seeing, leading to new ways of acting, leading to new ways of being alive.