Retelling greatest story ever

This week I've been reading "Follow Me," a sweet retelling of the life of Jesus by local author Don Hemingway.

And the book has me thinking about "the greatest story ever told" and why we never tire of it.Movie critics today carp at filmmakers who keep borrowing story ideas from classic movies.

Book reviewers grow weary of writers who keep spinning the same plot a dozen different ways.

But I don't hear many people say "That's enough versions of the Christmas story."

The "sweet story of old" never wears out its welcome.

Perhaps it's because the story seems to "lie beyond making." It feels discovered, not concocted.

It feels as if it came to us whole and intact, without seams and stitches.

Whatever the reason, writers, artists and musicians have always found it irresistible. No storyteller worth his salt could help but be enchanted by its narrative power.

Bach, Beethoven and Handel felt drawn to it.

So did Cecil B. DeMille ("King of Kings"), Andrew Lloyd Webber ("Jesus Christ, Superstar") and Franco Zefferelli ("Jesus of Nazareth").

When author Malcolm Muggeridge re-told the story of Jesus in a little book, the London Times called it "his masterpiece."

William Goyen wrote a little gem called "A Book of Jesus." I especially like his beginning:

The world as it was then was the world that has always been: made worse by man and needing change.

And Charles Dickens - the Greatest Storyteller Ever to Tell - couldn't resist writing "The Life of Our Lord."

For even without the spiritual and supernatural elements, it's a storyteller's dream.

Great stories usually involve a conflict. And the most basic conflict will always be "two dogs, one bone."

In the story of Jesus, the solitary hero is torn apart by rival camps.

The story is a rags to riches story - worldly rags to spiritual riches.

It's a mystery.

A thriller.

It's a period piece, a cautionary tale, a morality tale and a brilliant piece of local color.

And all those elements tend to appear in the best adaptations of the story.

They are there in the book I'm reading by Don Hemingway.

Hemingway, a Salt Lake attorney, wrote "Follow Me" many years ago but is just bringing it out now. He says it has taken him many years to go through enough experiences to get his book right.

He visited Palestine to gain a sense of geography.

He read commentaries and histories.

He was looking to produce an "easily read story of the Savior."

And "Follow Me" is filled with the care and keeping of an author who feels he's been handed an heirloom jewel to guard and pass along.

Hemingway has built his book around Scripture, then fleshed out the scenes with his own connecting dialogue and incidents.