Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Children's Books And The Lords Prayer 
    It has long been considered true that if you want your kids to be readers, you need to read to them while they are young , before they can read. Apparently an even bigger factor has been discovered, which sounds far less warm and fuzzy, and it is to simply have books ready at hand. 
   My parents were not aware that this is what sociologists would discover decades later, but they did buy books. In the 1960's my mom probably caved in to one of those many book clubs where you could get 5 books for a ridiculously low price if you "joined the club". I assume this because I remember in my early elementary years, packages would come in the mail and they were books for me! ( This also may have created my future disposition for ebay shopping but more of that later).
    For at least 45 years now, I have once in a while tried to remember one book that I must have really liked, but for the life of me I couldn't remember it's title. When my three girls were toddlers I was at the children's library all the time bringing home books for the bed time ritual. I loved climbing in beside Justine on the bottom bunk with Jordy up on the top peering over the side, listening while we'd read of the "Clown Arounds" going on vacation or a grey haired granny who would take in just about any kind of animal but "No Elephants!". 
    Often as I'd scan the stacks upon stacks of kids books at the library, I would have a faint hope that some day I'd come across that one book. All I knew about it was that it's graphics had a blueish tinge and that one of the characters had a face that looked sort of like an axe. I seemed to believe he had the power to become an axe when he needed to.  Not much to go on for sure. No Title/ Author /ISBN. Just "maybe" a guy who could turn into an axe. I doubt I ever approached the children's librarian, not with such a lame description to go on. So I'd just move on , maybe it didn't exist anyway. 
    I had a flash yesterday. I don't know what caused me to think once again of the long lost book. I thought to myself: "With the way the internet has evolved over the past decade with billions of random questions posted and answered, that maybe, just maybe, some body has taken the time to answer another lost soul looking for a book with a guy who could "maybe" turn into an axe. Can you believe it? People like me (probably in their late 40's early 50's) were looking for just such a thing! 
    How excited I am, that a first edition copy of "The King With Six Friends" is on it's way to my mailbox. Now realize, I don't even know what the book is really about yet I am fascinated to see the actual illustration of the guy with he axe shaped face really looks like, compared to my murky memory about it. What are the ideas I was being guided to think about as a 5 - 7 year old and what was there about the story that resonated with me? Will they be ideas that I am still passionate about? Will it bring back a flood of other memories? 


Hold that thought.


 Imagine the angst that exists for a 25- 35 year old young adult who grew up fatherless. I realize biologically no one in the world is actually fatherless. I occasionally survey people at Renaissance on Fathers Day. I get them to raise their hands if they ever at one point in their existence, after conception, actually had a father. The numbers are consistently really, really high. 
We do however in a very non -humorous way, live in a time where what it really means to have a father, for many young adults is like a giant residual blurry memory without many more details than my description of a book, "perhaps with a guy who could turn into an axe". Concerning my beloved children's book, while I couldn't remember much about it I am pretty sure I really, really liked it (when I was very little). 
    Donald Miller ( The Blue Like Jazz Guy) wrote what I think is a pretty profound book " To Own A Dragon" which has been retitled and re-released as " Father Fiction". I think everyone who desires to gain some empathy for the millions of young adults our world keeps producing who have nothing but a faint memory of having a Father, could gain a lot from reading it. Imagine the impact when what is meant to be one of the most profound shaping relationships of their lives, pretty much never materialized, or was within their grasp for only a fleeting few months of early childhood.  People for whom having a Dad sounds like fun, you can imagine some parts of it, like owning your own pet dragon but it is about as fictional and blurry. It sounds like something you would really like, but you can barely remember enough of it to describe it. It just doesn't seem very real. 
As a messenger of the gospel I can spot a real opportunity if handled sensitively to declare some really good news. 
   This then, is how you should pray: "Our Father in Heaven,..." Matthew 6:9  
Jesus has made it possible to fill a hole much bigger than the one in the children's story section of your personal library , he has provided a way home to a perfect Father. A longing that you have, that you may have spent decades avoiding, because after all you have so little to go on and you will probably never find what you are looking for anyway. 
Don't give up looking.