Fairytales
24 May 2024
I realise it goes with the territory of being a parent, but I have found myself increasingly thinking that things aren’t like they were when I was growing up. Recently I caught myself thinking this when reading newer stories to my children before bed, and when I join with them to watch stories being read on TV.
More than once I been watching or reading what I assumed was a typical adaptation of a fairy story, only to be thrown by a twist at the very end. Instead of the big bad wolf (or dragon, or whatever other beast was been viewed as the baddie) being defeated and killed or chased off never to be seen again, there’s a different conclusion. Suddenly the goodies stop and listen to those they are afraid of, and they discover that they aren’t so bad after all. They are simply misunderstood. And so, after a time of discussion and reconciliation everyone joins together and lives happily ever after - fire breathing dragon included!
I don’t think my unease at this comes simply from being offended that my childhood stories are being butchered. There is of of course something in that - adjusting the endings of classics feels a bit like touching up Van Gogh’s painting because we now have access to computer software. But my concern goes a bit deeper.
When I was thinking it through, I was reminded of a quote by the science fiction and fantasy author Neil Gaiman -
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
Neil Gaiman is not a Christian, but in this quote he is summarising a sentiment that Christian authors like C.S.Lewis often wrote about. Fantasy stories like fairy tales are deliberately scary, but they always have happy endings to make a very important point.
I have no doubt that the children’s writers who rewrite the fairy tales for my kids generation are doing it with the best of motivations. The message they want to emphasise is the importance of understanding, especially towards those who are very different to us. This is good, important, and is a biblical emphasis.
However, our children also need to hear a bigger message. Indeed, we all need to hear a bigger message. That message is that good and evil exist. There is such a thing as real and terrible evil. It is as bad and scary as a fire breathing dragon. But we shouldn’t be terrified - that evil has been and will be defeated, and there is coming a day when we will live “happily ever after”.
Every good story that we tell has echoes in it of THE great story - the story of our universe, the story which comes from God to us, the good news that God has sent his Son to defeat evil, to rescue a people, and to be with them forever.
It is important for us to see that the dangers we face in our world are bigger than we can see. Evil is not just good that has been misunderstood. It is sin - rebellion and opposition to God, the source of all goodness. There is an unseen spiritual reality behind all evil - there is a Satan. While we may want to hide away from those scary realities, it is our real enemies that Jesus has defeated. He has defeated sin, the devil and death - and will finally destroy them.
The Bible uses fairytale-like stories to help us see the reality of evil. The images in Revelation may feel very strange to us, but they are deliberately given to us to help us see the unseen reality of the spiritual world, to feel how terrifying they are, but so that we can see them defeated at the end of the Bible.
It is no surprise that a culture that denies anything apart from what we can see would misunderstand the purpose of fairy tales and would want to rewrite them. However we all need them - not just children. Because we need to see sin and evil unmasked as it really is. If we don’t we will be tempted to play and compromise with it. Evil is so deceptive - the devil likes to pretend to be an angel of light.
More than that, we need to know that because of Jesus’ victory over evil we will live happily ever after with him. He is the greatest of all heroesI