When I walk into a room filled with books, my first inclination is to browse the titles. I long to pull down a book and to look inside its covers, to read a few pages and to sample the adventures that it holds. There is something very magical about books. They charm us. Whether one homeschools or not, good literature should have a prominent place in everyone’s home. Books should be the decor of every room.
Susan Schaeffer Macaulay writes that good books contain the throb of human life. Good books embody living ideas that make the mind come alive. They transport us to unknown places and introduce us to unfamiliar people. They set alight our imaginations and open the doors of interest and curiosity. The stories that we read in the pages of a good book inform us and trigger us to ask questions.
Ever since the beginning of time stories have been a part of the human experience. The Bible from the book of Genesis on is largely a book of stories. It contains true stories that show us God’s relation to man. Jesus knew the importance of stories. Much of His teaching comes to us in the form of stories that are filled with vivid imagery. They teach us the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.” “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.” We remember the prodigal son and the good Samaritan. Flannery O’Connor comments, “A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way, and it takes every word to say what the meaning is.”
Just as the stories of Jesus move us to a higher level, so do other stories in our possession. A story like Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte introduces us to a complex moral situation and prepares us to make wiser decisions. We don’t blame Mr. Rochester for his deception. But we know in our hearts that he is wrong in what he has done. We admire Jane for the decision she makes. We know that she has chosen wisely. Her character makes us think. She inspires us and evokes us to make decisions with deeper conviction.
Stories not only move us to higher levels. They also allow us to experience the pains and humiliations of the characters involved. We learn to empathize with characters like Edmund Dantes and Mercedes from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. We feel his pain and humiliation when he is arrested on false charges and then imprisoned. We pity him as he spends long years in solitary confinement. And we understand his reasons for revenge. His experience helps us to develop a greater sensitivity for others and the actions they take.
With stories we can better understand the people around us. We can also better understand ourselves. Stories often touch our hearts in places of vulnerability. In The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, we can see ourselves in many ways. Haven’t we done or felt some of the very things we read about? When Aslan admonishes Shasta from The Horse and His Boy, “I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no-one any story but his own,” or when he reminds Lucy in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, “Child, did I not explain to you once before that no one is ever told what would have happened?” we see into our own hearts and we are admonished and reminded ourselves.
The merits of good literature are numerous. Books are one way that we are able to learn about and experience the world around us. As James Freeman Clarke said, “Let us thank God for books. When I consider what some books have done for the world, and what they are doing, how they keep up our hope, awaken new courage and faith, soothe pain, give an ideal life to those whose homes are cold and hard, bind together distant ages and foreign lands, create new worlds of beauty, bring down truths from heaven – I give eternal blessings for this gift, and pray that we may use it aright, and abuse it not.” Yes, let us fill our lives and homes with good literature to be read day after day. Let us learn from the lives within the pages. And let us thank God for His wonderful gift of stories.
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