How We Can Discover Deep Truths about Ourselves Through a Good Story

“Tell me a story!”

This request always happened at bedtime, my two sons and one daughter cuddled up on the bottom bunk of the boy’s bedroom, pajamas donned, hair still wet from bath time. More than watching a movie, more than reading from some book, they wanted me to tell them a story, any story, their eyes wide and waiting for whatever tale I might deliver. Their favorite stories were from my childhood when I’d describe growing up in Arkansas in the last century. They’d take in every detail with fascination, as if I was some relic with tall tales of old.

My kids are almost grown now, my oldest heading to college in the fall, but I’ll never forgot those countless moments we shared around a story, giving warmth and light as cozy as a campfire. When I think about what they’ll remember in the years ahead, I doubt they’ll recall much from my fatherly lectures, but I imagine they’ll remember the stories. They’ll remember Frodo on the edge of Mount Doom and how Samwise was the hero. They’ll remember Edmund and his Turkish delight, and the mercy Aslan showed him in the end. And they’ll remember the stories from my life as a kid in the “backwoods” of the Ozarks as I learned to face my fears and discovered the boundless love of God.

Aren’t we all lovers of story?

Something tells me it’s by design.

I love sitting in the back of church on Sunday, watching the congregants as the preachers give their sermons. The people sit and nod and take notes through bullet points and scriptures. But when the preacher starts in on a story, you can see the mood shift almost at once. People visibly relax, lowering their pens, and look up with smiles of rapt attention. I’d bet that most lunchtime conversations center more on the stories than the bullet points. That’s what people remember.

And Jesus knew it too.

I cherish how the Bible describes the love and mercy of God. But when Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son, and we picture the image of the Father’s rejoicing at his errant son’s return, we feel the love of God to our very core. We see it.

Few things help us see and understand the deeper truths like a story well told.

As an author, I’ve had to realize that it’s so much more than merely bringing pen to paper. It is an act of creation, weaving stories together that touch the heart and soul of the reader. Making them feel less alone. Showing them that dragons can be slain. The lost can be found. And despite our myriad failures as humans, we can always find redemption in the mercy and grace of God.

Over a decade ago I began to make up a story at bedtime for my kids. It was a space adventure. They were the main characters tasked with conquering untold evil. Each night I’d leave them with a maddening cliff hanger as they faced peril after peril. Little did I know that that story would grow into a novel called The Sapphire Sword. If someone had told me back then that this story would eventually be published, fulfilling a lifelong dream, I would have scarcely believed them.

When The Sapphire Sword finally arrives at bookstores next month, I will no doubt recall those adventures at bedtime so long ago, when I sent my kids across the galaxy to face insurmountable odds with supernatural powers.

I hope you can come along, too.