What is the Word of God?

"In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 104

Scripture is an encounter with God, regardless of the story being read. The details of the story can certainly be relevant, but they don't have to be. The stories are a vehicle for God's communication to us. Whether classified as history, as literature or as mythology, Scripture is the Father's chosen instrument to transmit His Word into the minds and hearts of those who read it. 

By reading it, you are exposed to God in the structures of your mind, whether you like it or not. The structures, images and symbols of the stories align with the structures of your consciousness in a kind of "Jungian" way. The living Word enters your perception like Greeks in a Wooden Horse. 

It happens at the level of the soul and finds its way outward into the circumstances of your life. 

The more you do it, the more aware of it you become, in an infinitely expanding way, and the more you realize its transforming effects. 

Of course, interpreting Scripture is critical to allow its meaning to emerge, but by simply reading it you are literally listening to God as might a child seated on his father's footstool.