The Dragonslayer

It seems to be the time for princesses.
Any mother of a little girl knows that she will inevitably dress as a princess at least once.
Stories and fairy tales tell of princesses.
Movies that many of us can name and have seen repeatedly, have a princess as the main character.

I always loved a quote from beloved author, C.S. Lewis.
Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. (C.S.Lewis)
That quote always made me ponder.
The stories we read our children are timeless; the plot is one we need to hear.

I actually knew of someone who would never read her daughter a fairy tale.
Her little girl was not allowed to watch any movie about a princess.
The plot  of that type of story was not acceptable to her parents.
They felt that the stories promoted weak women.

I always felt sad about that.
Fairy tales and stories of knights and princesses are tales of chivalry and valor.
Such stories give children a sense of something “just beyond” as C.S.Lewis said.
It gives the child new depths about our world.

He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted. (C.S. Lewis)

Critics say that fairy tales will frighten children.
C.S. Lewis firmly disagreed.
The trouble is that we often don’t know what will trigger such phobias in children, Lewis said.
Lewis spoke to what those critics said.

But in making this objection, some mean that “we must try to keep out of [the child’s] mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil.” But we are born into a world like that, and hiding it from children actually handicaps them. “Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. . . Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book. (C.S. Lewis)

It seems to be the time for princesses.
I saw an adorable picture of two little girls who are sisters sitting on a chair.
They were dressed in their princess dresses; the older one wore a tiara.
Who knows what their play entailed as they wore their satiny dresses?

It seems to be the time for princesses.
I received an email from a friend.
She and her husband, their daughter, son-in-law, and children are off to Disney World.
When the littlest daughter heard about the trip, she immediately went into her room to pack.

It seems that the little girl put only princess dresses in her suitcase.
That is all she felt that she needed.
I am sure the mother of the little girl will add some necessities.
In the little girl’s mind, she would be ready for anything with the clothes she packed.

When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.
(C.S. Lewis, On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature)

We have all been saddened by another mass shooting in a school in Florida.
We are actually more than saddened, we are outraged.
We are confused as a nation about why this type of thing keeps happening.
We talk about laws, weapons, mental health issues, and armed guards at schools.

We fail to talk about sin.
We fail to talk about the evil that fills a heart if the heart is a heart of stone.
We are lost.
We need a Savior.

When we come to Jesus in faith, admitting that we are totally lost without Him, we are filled.
We are filled with the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit dwells in our heart, there is no room in our heart for anything else.
We still sin but sin is not our master.

 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)

A heart that is not filled with the Holy Spirit is filled with something else.
It is a heart that is filled with depravity.
It is a heart of stone.
It is a dead heart that needs to be made alive.

No law can ever change a human heart.
Only God can do that through His Son, Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
A Spirit-filled heart can choose righteousness.
A dead, heart of stone can only choose sin.

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. (Revelation 19:11-16)

I want children to know about the One who will come on a white horse, ready for war.
I want children to know that the dragon will be slain because his time is short.
I want children to know that the villain, the enemy of our souls, will be defeated.
I want children to know that the Story has the most glorious ending.

I want children to know the Story.
The true Story.
The Story is not a fairy tale, yet all fairy tales point to something, “just beyond.”
Just beyond, on the other side, the Knight will lead us Home.