Do the stories you feed your children serve this end?

Or, in an effort to protect them, do we simply feed them cheesy, vacuous, moralistic mush with a Christian-friendly label? “Clean.” “Positive.” “Faith-based.” “Uplifting.” “Inspirational.” “Safe.” Those are all good things, right? Sure…unless they are actually poison.

Clean

Great—no perversion or foul language. But is the story true? After all, the scribes and Pharisees were pretty cleaned up on the outside.

(For decades, Disney provided the world with “clean” stories that encouraged children with messages like “Follow your heart” and “Don’t let anyone else tell you who you are.” Those clean falsehoods now stain our land because our culture swallowed them…and then followed them to their logical conclusions.)

Positive

About what? There are many books, movies, and TV shows that are quite positive about things God hates, and quite unwilling to touch the “negative” themes of repentance, ultimate sacrifice, and judgment. But God is not a hippie.

Faith-Based

Jesus taught that you are either with him or against him. But faith-based marketing demands that stories keep God vague so as to appeal to the biggest possible audience. But guess what? If you teach your children to simply “believe” without supplying the gospel, you are merely indoctrinating them into the faith of demons (James 2:19).

Uplifting

The Lord is the lifter of the Christian’s head. But that is very different than stories that teach your children, “You first need to learn to love yourself,” or the like. For there is a sort of uplifting that is deadly. “Their throat is an open grave” says Psalm 5:9 and the next line unpacks what the psalmist means. You might expect a description of their profanity. But no, it is far worse: “They flatter with their tongue.”

Inspirational

Imagine the motivational speeches that helped build the Tower of Babel. Or listen to how inspired Israel was in 1 Samuel 4:5: “And as the ark of the covenant of the Lord was coming into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth resounded.” Yet that story did not end well. Excitement and inspiration are nothing if God is against you.

Safe

The truth is that there is a “safe” that shields our children from being preyed upon by a sick world, and there is a “safe” that shields them from the training they need to resist the world and conquer with Christ.

On the other hand…

The Bible is full of a lot of sharp edges and grit.

“So we should have our children read edgy books?!”

I don’t know. Do you mean a book with a wicked adversary who somehow has access to the true God? A protagonist gaining victory via assassination? A hero stained by terrible scandals? A “good guy” who viciously mocks his enemies? A kamikaze play for victory?

Then, yes. Because stories with characters like Balaam, Ehud, David, Elijah, and Samson are good for your children. God said so by putting them in his Book.

Personally, I want to feed my children books that smack of the Bible.

Recently, I attempted to do something similar in a sermon…

Imagine you live in Jericho. The army of the one true and living God is coming for your city—for utter destruction. But it is also coming for you to spare and save according to a solemn vow made before the LORD. For you are Rahab. You know the LORD because the LORD knows you.

And so, when the walls of the city crash like an avalanche of thunder, your home (built into those walls) alone remains. As the soldiers flood the streets without mercy, at God’s instruction, none attack the lone tower that still stands, decorated with a scarlet cord, where you and your family have taken passover-like refuge, because you are shielded and known by covenant.

Instead, the spies alone, who know you, gather you and your family away to a safe place before the city is razed to the ground with fire.

(Can you imagine it?)

As you gaze back at the city, it looks as if lava has overrun it. The whole of it is erased from history, but for you and your family, who escape unharmed. More than that, who are grafted in to the very fold of God to belong there, safe forever.

For…

The story of Rahab puts the truths of Nahum 1:6–7 on display in a narrative. It enfleshes this prophet pronouncement of God’s character.

A book that does this same sort of thing well is Wise Words by Peter J. Leithart, each chapter unpacking a single proverb with a fairy tale.

Later chapters in the book go further, weaving in imagery and redemptive pictures from elsewhere in the Scriptures even as the lesson of a proverb is told via story. It is an absolutely delightful book that has served as foundational inspiration for the vision behind my writing.

That vision: To hunt down, unpack, squeeze out, and otherwise examine under microscope as much as I can from a single book of the Bible—its metaphors, exhortations, phraseology, assumptions, points of emphasis, conclusions, style, protagonists, antagonists, lessons, distinctive characteristics, and even its ending—in order to write an adventure story that draws from these discoveries.

So, for example, what if the book of James could somehow be transformed into a fantastical story while maintaining the same heartbeat and same truths? Is that even possible?

It is my intention to find out.

Answer: Depth.

Some stories—even enjoyable stories—simply don’t bother with this. The classic Nancy Drew books come to mind. They are easy and enjoyable to read, but you’d never imagine there was more to see than what is plain on the surface.

Then there are stories with passing “easter eggs” and literary shout-outs. Such things are amusing, but cannot be described as “depth.”

I’m talking about meaningful allusions, architectural echoes, and spiritual insights.

N.D. Wilson does the first and second types of depth particularly well. One example that stands out to me is the way Treasure Island’s story architecture and characters contribute to The Ashtown Burials. While on a vacation a couple of years ago, I noticed an old copy of Treasure Island on the bookshelf of the VRBO where we were staying. I had never read it before and so gladly picked it up. I could not put it down! Part of my delight was in the story itself. The other part was more complex and gradually increased as I began to smell reminiscent elements of Wilson’s book series. I had previously read that series at least twice and loved it for its story and gospel flavor, but now I realized it had other depth I previously knew nothing of. Wilson had, in fact, hidden in his books a whole array of treasures from this classic hidden treasure story. Discovering this was sweet and caused me think through The Ashtown Burials and its complex characters afresh, bringing greater understanding and fresh insight.

But books—fiction books…and even fantasy books—sometimes go deeper still. Sometimes they help you know God more. Many good Christian writers do this, but none so well as C.S. Lewis. I’d prove it to you here, but I can’t! A simple quote will not do. No, it takes an entire well-woven story to lead you to a paragraph that will change your life forever. Anyone who has walked with Shasta and Aslan from Archenland to Narnia or been awakened from a stupor by the smell of burnt marshwiggle or enjoyed the glorious refreshment of a bubble tree knows exactly what I mean.

My daughter Abi, on the other hand, could stop. It was not her thing. Her thing, rather, is art—and I think she is really good. So it was decided: I would write and she would draw and paint what I write. Her very first task: the marble bug.

How did she do?

And it is so good! Talking animals. Mystical visions. Staff-bearing wizards. Cosmic Battles. Legendary feats. Ultimate sacrifice. Courage and adventure. True philosophy. Miraculous healings. Poetry and song. Cunning villains. Passion and romance. Mind-bending mystery. Desperate attacks. Characters eaten by earth and worm. Men struck blind. Men struck dumb. Apocalyptic disaster befalling whole lands. Enemies defeated by super-human strength. Unexplained sidebars. Wacky riddles. Chariots and horsemen, both human and angelic. A flying, living, fireball-hurling throne. Crafty dragons. Epic warfare. Utter despair. And a Hero to save the day.

You’ll never find a better story because this is God’s best.

And yet, there are others that He writes…

Most prolific of his writings, in fact, are his audiobooks, with a unique compilation accessible in real-time to each individual listener, including you. Can you hear it? I hope so, because you are a part of it! I’m talking about the book you are living in, made of the stuff that was spoken into existence (i.e. everything) and held together only because Jesus keeps talking.

And [God’s Son] is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. —Hebrews 1:3a (NASB)

Even these words you now read, shaped by pixels, colored by an app, powered by a battery, absorbed through your eyeballs, interpreted via your brain, comprehended in your spirit exist only because Christ is dictating the audiobook of Reality right now.

Simply put, the Author of history has written and is writing all that is.

And one of the things Christ writes is me writing for you.