Reading Classics: The Little Prince

I'm not sure how many of you took me up on the goal of reading the first two chapters of the little prince. (You can find the story here)

The truth is, you can learn from this blogpost without reading the story.

I personally have such a love for the tone of the story, that I would have a hard time putting it down. The story is quick and unique and funny enough that I just keep turning pages. Many of the friends that I have shared this book with in the past will tell me that they don't read books, but that they did read and enjoy this book.

Digging in:

Let's assume that you only read the first two chapters, and try to learn something from the story of the main character (the aviator) as he draws a few pictures. 

When he is a boy, he draws this picture, which the "grown-ups think is a hat.
Because the grown-up have no imagination, he has to draw this second one:

And I've always like drawing number one more, because I prefer use my imagination.

But what I really enjoy is the picture that the aviator draws for the little prince, when none of his drawings of a sheep please the prince. "Your sheep is inside." he says. and the little prince responds "That is exactly the way that I wanted it."

The thing that I think we can learn from the little prince is how to have a childlike faith. He takes things as they are presented to him. For us, as Christians, there are times when we want to take God's Word at face value when he hands us a box and tells us what is inside.

In a world of sinners, this attitude can get you into trouble, and it does cause problems for the little prince. If his friend the rose complains about something, he believes that the rose is telling the truth, and doesn't even consider that the rose may be being melodramatic in order to get attention.

But in regards to our relationship to God, we truly can trust him with hope and inoccence like the little prince.

When God describes heaven for me, he tells me what it will feel like. He tells me that we will not be sick or hungry. He compares it to some wonderful things like a wedding banquet and living in a grand home. He does not describe what it will look like. He does not describe our daily schedule or even tell us if there will be days.

He tells me that we will be with him. He tells us that our reward will be great, and that there is no way that a thief can steal the treasure from us. 

But God really does give us a box when we ask for a sheep sometimes. in Matthew 7 Jesus tells the people, and us, that we can ask him for anything. and that we can trust him to care for us well.

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

-Matthew 7:7-11

So we believe him, and rejoice that the gift of heaven will be exactly the way it should be. And when we are curious about something we can ask him. When we are in need of something, we go to him for help. Because he certainly wants to care for us.

Reflecting:

So, what other things does God ask you to accept as the sheep in a box? Are there things that you wish you knew the ins and the outs of, but God tells you simply to trust him with the faith like the little prince?

Reading Classics: The Light Princess

First of all, I’m just wondering if any of you laughed out loud at this story.

I’ve read it before, but every time, I find myself chuckling even just during the first chapter at the king. "So he made up his mind to be cross with his wife about it."

I love how light and funny the tone of the opening is. What made you laugh during this story?

  

Digging in:

The princess is light, because she has no gravity holding her down. At first it is funny. The idea of a floating baby being used as the ball in the kids games is a fun one.

And her personality matches the lightness that her body possesses. At first her laughing and pleasantness was a blessing. Especially to the strangers. But as she grew up, her lightness became a problem because she didn't understand the 'gravity' of certain situations. And even her laughter apparently did not contain the type of depth that is necessary.

One moral to the story, seems to be that it is more of a problem never to take anything seriously than it is to have no gravity.

George MacDonald, and C.S. Lewis both taught me be skeptical of a search for happiness as the goal of life.

 “What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy."

"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” 

—C. S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity

In our world, people celebrate happiness, and even "love" but it seems that the love that they speak of is something shallow and light in the way that the princess is light.

Sometimes people try to take faith and put it in that same sort of box. They act as though we can just have a free-spirited light confidence in "things will all work out in the end."

But without first realizing the gravity of our situation, how could we then see the need for a savior?

And why would that savior have to suffer? If all of our wrongdoing and selfishness were merely harmless, then surely Christ would not have had to suffer.

But if God had "lightly" waved his magic wand at our sin to wash it away—if our forgiveness had not come at a great price—it would not be nearly so valuable.

The Light Princess both realized the depth of love that is present in sacrifice. Though the prince was a bit shallow, his love-filled sacrifice brought out the rightful sorrow that we have when we look upon the cross of Christ. Only ours is not confined to a fairy tale. It is anchored in the real history of all mankind.

Thanks be to God that he had a solution for our sin that is real, and deep, and grounded in truth.

Reflecting:

Sometimes things happen in our life that are heavy. And though we wouldn't wish for them to happen, one of the things that happens is that we look back and see that God was growing us through that trial.

What is a heavy situation that you have faced in your life? And what was one thing that God taught you through that experience?

Reading Classics

I asked you guys on the facebook page to list some of the examples of Christian classic literature that you were interested in reading.
 
The most common answer was "something by C.S. Lewis."  

I think that that answer is a good one, because C.S. Lewis does an interesting thing. He stands across a bridge of time, sharing with us thoughts and ideas that were explored in the centuries before his time and ours. However, he has only been gone from this earth 51 years, and he would not like us to consider any such writings as new as his to be considered "classics".

I discovered the quote in this picture in college when I was diving in to all of these wonderful, and old books. He wrote this quote in a preface to a book from the fourth century called, On the Incarnation of the Word, by St. Athanasius.

He was urging us, future Christians, to avoid something he called "Chronological Snobbery." He wanted us to avoid thinking that everything newer is better simply because it is new.

Those of us who spend time reading Scripture have probably discovered ourselves thinking the opposite way. We see the truth of God's Word, and the pattern that he calls for us to live, and we shake our head and say, "have we learned anything since the days of Joseph and Potiphar's wife?" or "are we any better than the sex-crazed people in the region of Turkey that the Apostle Paul evangelized to?"

I really appreciate the way that Scripture's truth is timeless. Even though the events in the history of the Bible are written about a specific time, the truth stands on its own, whether I am making the same mistakes as the people in the Bible story or not.

Something similar can happen when I read something that is more than a hundred years old. The way of thinking back then is different enough from the way of thinking that I am surrounded by, so that I can see my own errors all the more clearly.

One thing C.S. Lewis does well for me, is that he serves as a guide about which Christian classics are worth reading. I have a book called, From the Library of C.S. Lewis. This book goes through and shares some of the books from his library that he had claimed were most influential in his thinking and writing, and in his becoming a Christian. It is fun to imagine people pouring over his books and taking note of which passages were highlighted or which pages had notes written in the margins. I appreciate getting to look through a window into his library and getting to peek at what he thought was worth reading.
 

Something else that I think I already knew before I read Lewis, was that there is a power in a fantasy story. It is a power that is not only exciting for the very young, but also contains the ability to show the wise something special about our own real world.
 
So this week, I want to share with you guys a bit of both things.

We are going to read together a fairy tale, by one of C.S. Lewis's favorite authors, George MacDonald. about ninety years before C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald was writing serious works about life and faith, as well as fairy tales.

The fairy tale is called The Light Princess, and it is a humorous adaptation of princess tales, link Sleeping Beauty.

You can find all sorts of wonderful Christian classics on a website called the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Because the books on here are old enough, there are in the public domain. So you can freely read them online, download the pdf, print them off, and in some cases listen to them as well.

Here is the website of the Light Princess. I hope you find it a fun read. It is certainly a fun, and though-provoking story.

The pdf is here. 

Next week, I will post some thoughts about the story, and ask some reflections questions.


 
God's Blessings,

Joel