You really begin to the understand the limits of language when you have children.  One of the struggles I’ve had is reassuring them at times that the fairy tales and adventures we read them are “just stories” and yet also talking of the Bible as a “story”.  So we have to talk about the idea of a “true story” and a “make believe story”.

Of course it is, as it has always been, fashionable to dismiss the Bible as little more than a collection of fairy tales.  But maybe there is *some* truth in comparing the story of the Bible to fairy tales, or rather see fairy tales in light of the Bible story.

Someone else has found a much better explanation of this sense of why we like stories.  So here’s some thoughts on story, C. S. Lewis, Tolkien and fairy tales from Tim Keller.  If you love stories or film, then click to listen:

You can read online Tolkien’s profound essay, “On Fairy-Stories.”