Point Your Kids to the Gospel with Great Stories

Kathryn Butler: I hope that over the next hour you might find some encouragement, some inspiration as you rejoice that the Lord’s work and His glory permeate even the books that we read with our kids at night.

So whatever your walk of life, if you’re a mom, if you’re a grandparent, if you are a Godmother, if you’re a youth minister, if you’re a teacher, if you’re just an aficionado of kids’ literature; I hope that the next hour offers you some encouragement and most of all leads you to marvel at how God reused His story—the greatest, most magnificent true story for which we all yearn—into the narratives of our childhood.

It is by His kindness that we’re able to remember His goodness and have reminders of His love that we can find embedded in the magic of Narnia and that enchanted land..

So, if you will, please, just join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You that You are the Author of life. That as Your hands spread over the nations, You still know each and every one of us, and You have concern for us. And the little ones whom You have given us to disciple and cherish, You know them each by name and knew them before You gave them to us.

Lord, I thank You that You have worked in the hearts and minds of authors who have gone before us who have been inspired by Your Word and that that inspiration has overflowed into their own work.

Lord, help us to have eyes to see, to discern Your story woven through so many others and to take the moment to pause and to ponder and wonder and lift these glittering threads out for our kids so that they might know Your love and Your light. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

I’d like to first start off by asking a question for everybody to reflect upon. You can write it down if you want. You can just think about it.

If you would, please, think back to your childhood and latch upon an example of a story that really resonated with you. Think back to one that lit sparks in your heart and mind.

• What story was it?
• Where were you when you first read it?
• What made your heartbeat quicken?
• What were the elements of that story that lingered and that bring your heart a thrill even now as you think about it?
• Why did that story matter?

Have you got one?

So, when I asked myself that question, I think of sitting belly down on my pink shag carpet in the 1980s when I was about seven or eight years old with jaw agape as I read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader for the first time. I came to the scene where Eustace Scrubb, the ornery kid who seems like he’s an antagonist at the beginning of the book, finds himself locked in a dragon’s skin.

And desperate to free himself, he takes his own claws, and he scratches and he scratches, and the scales fly off, and there’s another layer underneath. He does it again, and he scratches, and he scrapes, and it hurts, and there’s still another layer underneath. And he becomes frantic.

I remember sitting there reading. I started to have chest tightness myself as I panicked along with him. What could he do? How could he save himself from this? What hope was there?

And then, Aslan, the great lion, who was not faith, but good, came. In one motion tore that skin off of him and washed him clean and Eustace became new.

I wasn’t blessed to grow up in the church, so when I read that story, I had no language for the exquisite brush strokes in which Lewis had just described the idea behind the gospel. Yet, still, it struck a chord in my soul. I couldn’t understand it. I didn’t have language for it. But somehow I knew when I read that passage in that story that I had witnessed something wondrous. I had been pointed to someone greater than myself, someone or something that was true and good.

And it took thirty years later when, by God’s grace, I’d been brought to Christ, and I was seated between my own two kids on the couch to read that narrative again. And as very frequently happens in my household while reading books, I burst into tears and slap my son’s knee and say, “Do you know what this is?” (my kids are used to this)

So he swallowed his Goldfish, and he’s, like, “Yeah, Mom. It’s Jesus saving Eustace from his sin. Can you keep going?” (laughter)

So, his cynicism aside, I discovered that that moment that had thrilled me so much at the age of seven, and which had stayed with me through the decades, was my first glimpse of the gospel. When I wandered through Narnia in that enchanted land, I had my first glimpse of God’s glory through the lens of an author who loved God. I knew for the first time the One who so loved us that He came to save us all. It was an echo of the Great Story.

The best stories that we read to our kids do that. They’ve got a power to enchant young minds and enliven their imagination. They form our kids’ first concept of what it means to be courageous, to be heroic, and to show sacrificial love, and to do good.

And in the very best circumstances, the tales that are carefully tucked into the books that we read to our kids as we tuck them into bed at night can point us to the very best Story (with a capital “S”), the true Story, the happy ending for which we all yearn.

I’m going to be talking a lot about Tolkien and Lewis, so if you don’t like them, I’m sorry, but they are the ones who have explicitly talked about this, so I have to reference them a lot. But J.R.Tolkien especially believed that the very best stories resonate with gospel truth.

You might know that he famously brought Lewis to Christ through a discussion about myths. The story goes that they were walking through the grounds of Oxford University at 2 o’clock in the morning, because when you’re in your twenties, you can do such things like walk around in the dark and talk about myths. (laughter)

Lewis was an atheist at the time. He was lamenting that the myths that he loved, the mythologies he loved, were not rooted in reality. He used a beautiful expression for it, and said that it grieved him that there was nothing true about them, although breathed through silver.

And Tolkien said, “What are you talking about?” 

And he told Lewis and shared the gospel and said, “Christ is the true myth. Christ is the full revelation of God. And the reason that any great story resonates with you is because it’s touching a chord from that true great Story.” He said, “All other great stories merely echo that truth and strive to capture it.”

He compared stories to prisms. He said that “just as a prism splits white light into its individual wave lengths, so an author who’s fallen in sin, nevertheless, when he writes a great story, we see fragments of God’s truth in it—corrupted, but still fragments of that truth.”

All throughout when you read the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy with a mind alert to gospel themes, that profound conversation is not surprising. But it’s astonishing to know that this is the conversation that brought Lewis to Christ when you consider how far reaching his influence was for generations of Christians, knowing that it was a conversation about stories.

But then, again, it makes sense because the Bible is one great, beautiful, intricately woven story that God, by His divine inspiration, has given us over millennia. Jesus taught in parables, in part, because they linger in the mind so much longer after the information and the lesson fades. Facts about an anchor float away, but stories make them stick.

All throughout Tolkien’s work, we see echoes of the Christian narrative, echoing back to his own belief that they’re intertwined, that Christianity is a true story. For example, a broken people battle against an irrepressible evil. You have Frodo as the humble, suffering hero who saves Middle Earth, when he’s the most unlikely person you’d expect.

You have Gandalf, the teacher, who’s beloved, who gives his life to save others and then rises again.

The Trilogy glitters with these themes, reflecting Tolkien’s belief, as he articulated in his essay on fairy stories, that the peculiar quality of joy in successful fantasy can be explained by a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth. It may be a far-off gleam or echo of evangelium—that was his word for the gospel—in the real world.

In other words, good stories delight us because they reflect the true Story, and they point to the ultimate happy ending: our adoption as God’s children through Christ.

So how do we harness these riches for our kids? How do we reap the treasures of story as we fulfill our calling to disciple our kids to know the Good Shepherd?

Ample research highlights how read-alouds nourish kids’ minds. In 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics actually recommended that all pediatricians recommend parents read to their kids, and they cited benefits to brain development and parent/child relationships.

And in her book The Enchanted Hour, Megan Coxgurden, who’s the Wall Street Journal’s children’s book critic, goes into exhaustive detail about the far-reaching effects of reading aloud on language development, on literacy, on social emotional skills. She calls it a magic elixir, and said that if it really was a medicine, that every child in the United States should get a prescription. And for the Christian parent, that elixir can also nourish a child’s soul.

I first glimpsed the power of great read-alouds to enrich our gospel teaching while reading The Fellowship of the Ring with my kids. They were eating peanut butter and jelly, and we reached the point where they are in Moria, running away from their enemies, and the Fellowship blast across the Bridge of Khazad-dûmwith the Balrog, the ancient demon from the deep in hot pursuit.

And Gandalf pauses and whips around to face him so that the Fellowship can escape. And in that great face off, if you remember from the movies, “You shall not pass the staff.” He puts his staff down, the bridge gives way. He shouts back to the Fellowship, “Fly! You fools. Save yourselves.” And then the Balrog descends, and his whip lashes around Gandalf’s ankle, and the beloved wizard is drawn into the abyss.

And I paused. I looked at my kids and worried. I thought, Was this too much? Was this going to overwhelm their sensitive minds? Was I going to be nursing them through nightmares tonight?

So I held my breath, and my son (you’ll catch a theme here) chews and swallows, and he looks at me, and he’s, like, “Mom, I think he gave himself to save the others, kinda like Jesus did for us.”

Whew! 

So moments like this have been at the pulsing center of our read-aloud time over the years and have offered such joy and such opportunities to talk about the truth of Christ.

I’m going to lift off some examples, and you’ll hear, again, a lot of Tolkien and Lewis, but there will be others I’ll talk about during the talk.

So, an abridged version of Oliver Twist elicited comments about how we’re made in God’s image, and how we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, and how we’re to have special concern for the orphan and the widow.

And, actually, Dickens is ripe for these discussions all the time. If you pick an abridged version that you trust, it’s wonderful to have these kinds of discussions.

The Ring of Power in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is a fantastic metaphor for sin where we actually get a visualization of what sin does to us: that it entices us even as it corrupts and destroys us. We see how Frodo is burdened by it even though he feels more and more bound to it as time goes on. We see how it deforms and corrupts Gollum into a creature that’s unrecognizable.

It offers kids a tangible understanding of: this is what sin is. We crave it. We want it. But it destroys us.

My son was scared during the pandemic. Stories actually also served us as a life raft. So early in the pandemic in 2020, I went back for a short time to work in the I.C.U. because cases were surging in Boston, and the governor had asked physicians to come out of retirement to help. My kids were old enough to understand what was going on and to be scared. And specifically, my son was very worried for my welfare.

It was early in the pandemic. We didn’t know how COVID was, how communicable it was. We just knew it was making people really, really sick very quickly.

We were so ignorant. I had a bucket of bleach (this is embarrassing) in my garage. I’d come home, and I’d wash myself in bleach because I didn’t want to pass anything on to my kids. It was just very early.

He was scared. It actually churned up a lot of doubts about God’s goodness in his head. And our first stop was to the book of Job, which we went through over the course of that year, which was so vital because it gave him a framework and understanding for the fact that God’s goodness endures even in the face of suffering and that He’s at work in ways that we can’t comprehend. He’s at work for our good and His glory.

But what also helped in the moment was that I continued to read aloud to my kids. I was working nights. I’d come home and crash. I’d get up, be with my kids, and then I’d go back to work. We were reading The Return of the King.”And it was that fantastic scene when Minas Tirith is under siege, and it’s described as gloom and despair. All seemed lost.

And then the Rohirrim come sweeping in over the plains. And Tolkien’s language is gorgeous. He described the air changing and a wind coming in off the sea and dawn breaking, and the morning had returned.

And I read it, and I started to cry again. I looked at my son who was in tears. And I said, “Bub, what’s going on?”

He said, “It’s just, like, it makes me really hopeful.”

And I said, “Do you know what? You’re absolutely right! And do you know what it reminds me of? Where’s our hope? Our hope is in that Jesus will make all things new, that no matter what we’re going through right now, however dark it is, just like Minas Tirith. He will return, and He will wipe away every tear from every eye, and death and suffering will be no more.”

And that was a life raft for us. It got us through that day. It got us through the next week. And it was all because we had Scripture. We clung to Scripture, and we could see echoes of it through the stories we read.

We read Robinson Crusoe, and my son and I rejoiced along with the main character in God’s amazing provision and providence.

So I would say that literature, from the nineteenth century especially, if you have kids that are old enough that you can walk through the original version, are really rich with very overt frank references to God’s goodness. When you read the abridged versions, they scrub it all out. But if you go back to the originals, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, Heidi have very beautiful, to-the-point, detailed descriptions of God’s mercy and providence through some hard things. They were wonderful to read together.

One night we read Voyage of the Dawn Treader on the couch. I had my moment. My daughter, who was only six at the time, had hers. There’s that great scene where an albatross appears in the sky to guide Lucy Pevensie and her friends out of danger. And then, Aslan’s voice booms over the sea and says, “Courage, Dear One.”

My daughter looks at me, and she’s, like, “Mom, that kinda reminds me of the Holy Spirit and God coming out of the clouds.”

And I said, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Our hearts broke at the sacrificial love of Helmer in The Green Ember Series. And we rejoiced when the rabbits returned to the mended wood again and when the rightful king returned to the throne.

We similarly had moments of discussion and gratitude and rejoicing when we read The Wingfeather Saga, and how Janner gives his life for his brother at the end and how the lost kingdom is restored and everything is named as the king comes as the second Adam.

I’ve spoken much of Tolkien and Lewis, but the fact is that stories from a multitude of traditions and authors can offer these riches provided they touch upon the right themes—provided they touch upon truth with themes of sacrifice, redemption, love, and radical hope, and provided they remind us of the Savior who laid down His life for us.

No fiction can replace God’s inspired Word, but the right stories, those that applaud goodness in the face of terror, hope against all hope, and celebrate the just, the true, and the lovely, can help point our kids to the one true story.

When we apply the truth of Scripture to conversations about great books, we open our children’s eyes in fresh ways. They can see God’s majesty, His mercy, and His incredible grace at work daily. In other words, we point them to the gospel.

And so, in some way, reading and discussing great books with our kids and weaving our knowledge of Scripture into it can be a ministry unto itself as we disciple them and point them to Christ.

So how do we do it?

How do we reap these joys and wonders for our kids?

How do we make the most of this read-aloud time and point them to the true happy ending?

I’d like to humbly offer five suggestions.

The first, I think, will be obvious to everyone in this room which is: give them Scripture first.

The fact that Tolkien has such an enormous secular fan base, Amazon Rings of Power . . . anybody? . . . demonstrates that when approached as isolated entities without the undergirding of God’s inspired Word, we can’t instruct our kids in the gospel. The stories by themselves will not do it.

Think back to when I encountered Narnia for the first time. My soul responded to something, but I didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t until I knew the gospel and knew what Christ had done that it clicked, and I could understand.

Stories can enrich the imagination and fan the sparks of a child’s understanding into a flame, but we need to ignite that first with the illuminating light of God’s Word. Great stories point to the gospel only if our kids first know the Bible.

The Bible is clear from Deuteronomy 6:6–7, that we’re to infuse our kids’ days with Scripture, allowing it to spill over into every moment, as we walk in the way, lie down and rise, and let it seep into what we read with them, what we laugh about, and what we share.

So, what I would recommend is: teach your kids that God’s Word is a “lamp to their feet and a light to their path,” from Psalm 119. And then help them perceive glimmers of that light in the stories they read.

The goal is to supplement your family’s devotions, not replace them, and to let the gospel seep into the moments of enchantment that naturally populate your kids’ days.

The second is to know your kids, which should also seem obvious.

The age range on the back of any paperback is only a guideline. Some kids can’t pry themselves away from an adventure story, and others find moments of peril too overwhelming and too frightening.

My kids love The Mistmantle Chronicle series, which is another fantastic series. That’s just coming out, newly released. They’re from twenty years ago, and they’re just being re-released by a Christian author. And when we read them, I thought, Oh, this is great, anthropomorphic animals with a mean character and a heroic squirrel. It will be great. But my daughter was just flooded with tears when we first read it because one of the characters died, and she was really sensitive to animal cruelty.

So, the point is, it takes a discerning eye to present material that will excite and educate, but not terrify. So, when possible, pick a story with which you’re already familiar so that you can edit sections on the fly that you think will be difficult or just save it for when the kids are older.

I’ve found editing on the fly is also very useful when you’re reading books that were written decades ago. That might have value, but which can have some culturally insensitive passages. If you know they’re coming, you can either address them with your kids and talk about how we’re all made in God’s image, and we need to love neighbors, and this is not a good example of that. Or, if they’re not mature yet to have that kind of discussion, to just be able to edit it out as you read.

Kid sensitivity is varied, and you know what best kinds of books will delight the unique kids in your life, and just know that the best stories will inspire and challenge without causing distress.

The third is to pick the best stories.

So, how do we discern whether a story we read to our kids reflects the one who overcame the world or the world itself? I think Paul’s words of discernment in Philippians 4:8 are hugely helpful:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (ESV)

Seek books that overflow with the true, pure, and lovely.

Educator Charlotte Mason refers to “The Living Book,” as the sustenance for children’s minds and describes such literature as the fit and beautiful expression of inspiring ideas and pictures of life.

Search for such books that explore our sinful nature with humility, point to our hope in Christ with reverence, and highlight the victory of good over evil. I have some resources for you if you want to write these down. I’m going to give you a bunch of websites that offer lists of books with reviews by Christian reviewers. Okay? And there’s some books also that I can recommend.

Redeemed Reader is a fantastic review site. It’s run by an educator as well as a writer who are both believers. And they specifically look at books intended for Christian families. They review everything. So everything that’s popular out there, I think of the Dragon Fire series. Anything that’s popular that kids are picking up and might be excited about at school, they offer reviews on.

They will offer a narrative of the concept, but they also will give a score. I’m not usually huge on numeric scores, but this is helpful. Out of the five points, they score the world view, and they score the literary quality. So you can get a sense of whether or not it’s highly recommended. It’s also been in place for over a decade, so they’ve got a very wide selection. I highly recommend Redeemed Reader.

Another which is similar but has a smaller offering because it’s one mom doing this as a ministry is The Good Book Mom, which actually is also a service. She offers podcasts and other articles of interest. And she does a beautiful job with reviewing. She really engages with the text, and she does a good job anticipating what age groups it would be appropriate for, what content which some parents and their kids find objectionable. It’s very, very helpful.

I’m sure many of you are already familiar with Sarah Mackenzie’s the Read-Aloud Revival. That’s an excellent source of just knowing what’s out there. I’ve found she’s not quite as discerning in terms of the books she recommends, but it’s a great resource in terms of what’s available.

Story Warren is the blog by S. D. Smith for The Green Ember series, who’s a hilarious person in real life, by the way. We had a Zoom call recently. He was wearing a DuckTales shirt. My kids came on, and he put on bunny ears and swung a sword at the screen. (laughter)

But Story Warren offers . . . Their whole ministry and their focus is holy imagination. So, trying to shepherd kids in the gospel. They have a lot of articles about these types of things: reading aloud, playing with your kids, and pointing them to Christ. But they also offer reviews.

World Magazine frequently puts out recommended books listings

And then, Little Book, Big Story, is a personal blog of Théa Rosenburg. And she has a particular interest in picture books. She includes a lot of picture books that she’s found to be helpful as a Christian mom.

And then, if you’re interested in just the riches of reading aloud, there are a couple of books that I can recommend: Wild Things and Castles in the Sky was just recently released. It’s a collection of essays, but they’re beautifully written, and it focuses on pointing kids to the gospel through stories for different age levels, how to pick the right stories, different genres. And they’re beautiful in and of themselves to read and to inspire.

The Enchanted Hour I mentioned. That is a book that really focuses on the joys of reading aloud. It’s not overtly Christian.

On Fairy Story by Tolkien, it’s obvious he’s talking about this whole idea that stories offer a gleam of the gospel.

And Mitali Perkins, who is a middle-grade author, has written many books. She had a book come out recently called, Seeped in Stories. It’s interesting to read because she actually credits her love of children’s literature with leading her to the gospel. She reviews and talks about how very specific books, I think Anne of Green Gables was one of them . . . She points out a lot of books in her childhood that opened her heart to the message of Jesus, and that one is a lovely one to read.

The fourth is to draw out gospel themes.

So, as you read with your kids, be alert to biblical themes in the story. Look for the redemptive ark in the character or plot line that points to our salvation in Christ. Here are some examples. Some of these are going to be obvious. But anything that’s redemption or sacrificial love is potential fruit.

• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe—Aslan giving his life to save Edmond’s. That’s a big obvious one.
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader we’ve talked about.
• Fellowship of the Ring—Gandalf giving his life for the Fellowship.
• Return of the King—Aragorn returning to rule over a kingdom made new.
• The Mistmantle Chronicles—as I mentioned, they place their hope in a creator. They call him the Heart, but he’s God, that will help to restore them when they are under tyranny of an oppressor.
• Green Ember series—Helmer gives his life for others. Smalls returns as the one true king.

While these examples are supposed to reflect the works of Christian authors, even less overt literature can prove instructive if you approach it with discernment. 

Shakespearean tragedies, I know people have different thoughts about Shakespeare and debauchery and everything, but if you read the tragedies and you get a good abridged version, it does a wonderful job of portraying for your kids the destructive power of sin.

• Think about Macbeth harboring the guilt and what happens as a result.
• Richard the Third is another one. If your kids are old enough to handle it, these are great ways to open up discussions about what sin does.
• Dickens, as I mentioned, stirs us to compassion for the poor and for widows and orphans.
• The Cricket in Times Square and Charlotte’s Web highlight love for neighbor and hope in despair.
• Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson illustrate God’s faithfulness and provision.

Even Greek Mythology—hang with me here, okay?—with its rampant idolatry, can offer teachable moments when we contrast it with the God of the Bible. Okay? So, when you read these, again, with a discerning eye.

When you openly discuss the brutality and lasciviousness of Zeus and Hera’s conniving, those wither before the majesty and the mercy and the holiness of the one true God, the One who’s abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. But I find that reading them, you can point out: “What do you think about this?” And it gives them a framework to understand our own God and what we read in the Bible.

So even the bad guys in stories, if we do it with a keen eye, can help emphasize how God’s grace is so radical, so astounding, and such good news.

The last thing I would suggest is to make it a habit.

So a habit of reading aloud with your kids facilitates this interweaving of great books. Reading aloud was part of our lifestyle. That’s why I think these conversations happened. I gave them the Bible first, and then we are used to a routine of reading together and talking.

A child unaccustomed to read aloud may initially grumble, but as the routine melds with your rhythms, the complaints will ebb.

Take whatever time works for your family. If it’s after school. If it’s during a meal, which I found is great because they’re a captive audience. They have no choice but to sit there and listen. Cuddle together before bed, whatever works. Even if it’s audiobooks in the car. Audiobooks count provided you talk with them afterwards about what you’re listening to.

Any of them, as long as you dialogue, and you make it a habit, you can reap these benefits.

And I would say, too, for us, the vast riches of children’s stories aren’t for kids alone. Great children’s literature offers glimpses of redemption that can stir our hearts as kids, but which can silence us with awe when we’re adults well versed in Scripture.

As kids, you can delight in the magic of Narnia, but the amusement deepens to wonder as adults when we marvel at the Christian allegory woven throughout.

And Tolkien’s Ring of Power affects us more powerfully when we’ve borne the weight of sin over the long decades.

And the redemption of the protagonist grandfather in Heidi strikes us as deeply poignant, and we fully grasp the theme of “the prodigal son” that throbs at the center of the novel.

So as children, great stories point our young, flourishing minds to the gospel. But as adults, such stories keep us in gospel hope when we need it most.

Mitali Perkins, the author I just mentioned, she writes this, “Don’t you miss the peace that a good story left behind in your souls? Children’s books can still do that work for adults.”

Good stories for children, after taking us through a hero’s journey fraught with danger and loss, leave us with hope. And such hope can prove vital as air when the narratives of the world threaten to crush us. When headlines mercilessly confront us with the wages of our sin, great stories remind us that sin has been swallowed up in victory, that our Savior will return, that good will overcome, and that heaven rules.

When we read happy endings in kids’ literature, our minds turn to the greatest happy ending of all, an ending no power on earth can wrench from us. Such stories imprint upon the heart and mind that linger long after the end. They shape and guide us, leaving a mark that never fades.

When Christian themes weave through stories like glittering threads, those marks point our children and ourselves to the hope that endures even in the deepest darkness. The best stories point us to Christ, and His ending is perfect. It will never disappoint. It flows like a cool cup of water ushered to eternal life.

The King, the One who bore our burdens will return. The cursed ring will burn up, and in this ending, the greatest of all happy endings, although for now we groan, we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Thank you guys so much.