Every time you read to your child you’re lighting a candle.
I had always known that words were my cushion and passion and breath, but I had no idea the deep impact they could have on a child’s pursuits and perspectives.
Early on in my mothering, my Ohio friend Betsy kindly kept buying my children books for birthdays and special occasions. When she would gift them, she would explain how each title had blessed one of her kids in some way.
By doing this, she slowly and gently began to introduce me to the wild and enchanted and courageous world of stories. And it has basically changed everything for us.
Two nights ago, as the sky grew dark and dotted, and our kids calmed down into rest, we picked up where we had left off a few nights before in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
What I read on page 113 sent an unexpected chill down my spine that warmed me somehow.
In the story, Eustace, a rather tatty and annoying young boy, had been turned into a dragon. No one could figure out how to turn the beast back into a boy again. (He had been a beast inside all his life, however. His outsides just now matched his insides.) Realizing that there was nothing he could do in his own strength to shed this dragon suit of sorts, he had become quite miserable. One night, as he lied alone in the wood, he had an encounter…..
“I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge lion coming slowly toward me. And one queer thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was…… It came up close to me and looked straight into my eyes.”
Aslan.
It makes water pool just rereading and writing it.
My eyes wet just about every time Aslan shows up in the Narnia series, because that’s how Jesus often times shows up for me….
Just in time, somewhat unexpected, strong but sweet.
I see my life in the story and I see truth in the tale.
And I’m taught.
And changed.
And reminded.
And admonished.
My faith being built through lore – so beautiful.
And it makes so much sense, since Jesus himself did the very same thing…teaching people through parables.
C.S. Lewis said that Christianity is the true myth. It’s how he came to believe.
And it helps me to really see Him too.
And through the pages of literature, your littles can find God and mystery and joy and truth just like you can.
I’m convinced, that in the decades and centuries ahead, souls will see Him and come into the Kingdom by way of story – through books, movies, media, testimony…..
My hope is that our homes will be a catalyst for this movement, and that our children will be lit arrows for a darkened world needing some flamed hope to fly through.
