I had a grandmother who loved to tell stories, both the retelling of famous stories and infamous stories of her own family and childhood. Some of my favorites were those of her children, one of which was my mother. I would sit intently focused on her eyes as they would twinkle; (I now realize) she filled in with her own creativity the parts she couldn't quite remember. Her voice would ebb and flow and she did some amazing accents for certain characters.
While this memory of her story-telling is so vivid, the strongest memories I have are waking to hear her in her adjacent room quoting Scripture over and over to herself. As an adult, I realized that was usually because she was in pain. She hurt at night from severe arthritis and there were none of the movements or distractions of day to ease her. Only His Word would do... but she had long since lost the eyesight to read, but she had obviously read the Love Letter enough for it to stick. I can still hear Psalm 19:14 through her voice,
"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer."
Along the way...
I was somewhere around a Junior in high school and was away at a retreat. One of the leaders had a group of girls gathered in her hotel room just talking and being silly, probably eating chocolate. (I am sure I was clutching a Dr. Pepper bottle.) She pulled out this book and asked if anyone had read it. She had a younger child and the book was a children's book by Max Lucado called A Crippled Lamb. I can still remember seeing the pictures for the first time; I couldn't look away as their beauty drew me in. I don't really remember the how or why but she began to read it to us. I do vividly remember the internal struggle however. The all too familiar battle between young woman and little girl that I dealt with daily at that time of my life. My one voice saying, "Why is she reading this to US?!?!?! We read romance novels for fun and classic literature in college level English? We write more sentences to each other in the notes we pass in classes than are printed in this entire book!!!!" My other voice saying, "This is so amazing!!! Do you see those pictures? Did you hear that part about him being left alone? Don't you just love Abigail the cow? Don't you just want to cuddle Joshua the lamb?!?!?!?!" And then His Impressing Voice on my heart and soul through the author's pen strokes, " God loves you and has a plan for you."
Fast Forward a few Years
I am now the leader and I have girls crowded in a hotel room (still clutching a Dr. Pepper bottle and eating something sweet). We are away on our first overnight retreat after my husband and I moved across the country to help with a young church. We did not plan to work with the students, initially, just be members of the church. We did not plan for them to become as much a part of our lives as they did. We did not plan to possibly be impacted as much as or more than we hoped to impact. But I did plan to read this book. I shared with them my own previously mentioned memory of being read to as a teen and how I hoped that by reading to them that if and when they found themselves floundering in life that any children's book might lead them back to the Main Book and ultimately the Author of Their Lives. Margaret's The Velveteen Rabbit had jumped off the pages into my heart months before as a parallel to how God loved me through my fakeness and into being real. How much it hurt to grow through the storms of life but how he loved me into reality. I shared this with the girls after I read to them. I had no idea what had been organized at the convention but as the two speakers shared that weekend; they mentioned the book as well. I will never forget the looks on two faces in particular as they leaned forward in our row of the audience and caught my eye as the second reference was made.
And there a tradition was born. "Story time" would become a regular occurrence for our group as the next 6 years went by and I would have the privilege to read to many, many girls. Every time there would be those few that I would see have the same struggle I'd had so many years ago but the next time we read they were usually on the front row and had drug a friend with them!!
Presently
My two oldest children have learned to read very well and through school have become acquainted with the Accelerated Reader scale. As much as we have all 3 enjoyed them progressing along this scale, they are beginning to reject certain books as being beneath their level. This summer we began to discuss my theory of rating books like foods. Together we came up with our own editorial scale. To us, the Bible is the entree; it can be so succulent and delicious at times that you can't get enough and at other times it can be hard to finish. Its nutrition is always there providing what you need for health and vitality! A book of poetry can be like a pack of individually wrapped candy. A chapter book can be like a cake that you enjoy only a piece at a time and come back for another slice tomorrow. One of my boys said fables could be like " Flintstone vitamins" because they are quick and to the point but teach you a lesson. We concluded that partaking of it all was pleasant, and it was even okay to over-indulge!!
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