Now my little five-year-old granddaughter is going through the “princess” stage. On our last visit, I started reading to her from her stash of fairy tale books. One about Cinderella was the same edition as I had as a child—an antique, for sure! But as soon as I read the last word, off my lap she jumped, running to her room. A few minutes later she emerged in her Cinderella costume. I knew she had the one for Queen Elsa (from “Frozen”) as she had paraded in that (with its filmy train, sparkly crown and wand) soon after we came to visit. Probably by now she has the costume for “Snow White,” her reported latest princess “thing.”
Imagination. Dream worlds. You'd think they'd be confined to children, but not so. When I open the “home page” of my computer, there's inevitably an ad promoting some imaginative-land computer game with the claim, “Try this and you'll be hooked.” I won't even start in on the prolific array of video games that range from woodsy-fairy-stories to the brutal and ugly. They do not feed the soul. They gorge the users with twisted ideas of reality and ungodly values. They fill the pockets of their manufacturers and leave their users spiritually impoverished.
Yes, it's a long ways from children's fairy tales to the utterly base or fake fare some people invite into their minds. But the temptations present an important question, popularized years ago with the revival of a classic Christian book that asked: “What would Jesus do?” Would He waste time following enchanted forest animals or a stern warrior princess or adrenaline-pumping interplanetary warfare as these spill across a television or computer screen?
Though not altogether true about real world systems, there's value in classic children's “hero” tales. They clearly show the difference between good and evil. Snow White is a pure maiden, only wanting to do good. Her life spared (despite the intents of her evil stepmother), she finds new purpose in serving a hidden-away conclave of miniature miners. But the jealous stepmother is their contrast: arrogant, self-centered, bitter, given to rages of anger.
Wait! Aren't the stepmother's problems also the values of today's world powers bent on destruction, responsible for incomprehensible human suffering? Perhaps in their own way, these little fairy tales prepare young minds for the greater conflict of good and evil with which Faith wrestles. And lest we forget: Jesus was called the “Prince of Peace.” His story was not of rescuing some damsel in distress, but redeeming a wounded world. A feeding trough for a crib isn't very royal, nor is an executioner's cross on a hill a romantic-castle-ending. But our story as Christians has the best ending: “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” This is no fairy tale. It's the real story of a God who created us, grieved our sin choices, and offers hope through a Savior amidst the world's darkness.
“Watch yourself,” Paul warned the Galatian church about getting caught in sinful choices, “or you also may be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). In other words, be very careful about the world's trendy entertainment choices. We have only a limited amount of time to live. Why waste it on what won't matter eternally?
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