• About
  • Submissions
  • Store
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube

Story Warren

Kindling Imagination for Kingdom Anticipation

  • Fostering Imagination
    • Valuing Imagination
    • Parenting
    • Faith & Vision
  • Resources
    • Books
    • Music
    • Movies
    • Interviews
    • Lists
  • Warren & the World
  • For Kids
    • Poems
    • Stories
    • Songs

Stories as a Shared Language

June 7, 2021 by James D. Witmer 8 Comments

I believe that one of the most precious things we can give our children is a sense of belonging. Christians rightly make much of not belonging to this fallen world, but Scripture does not say we are a nomadic, homeless people. No, we are strangers in a strange land, but we are pilgrims – we are citizens of another kingdom. Our road is not endless, it has a destination.

Or as Tolkien wrote, “Not all who wander are lost.”

To put it another way: We can’t revoke our children’s citizenship in Vanity Fair, without offering them a better home, and expect them to remain aloof. The human soul cannot stand to be untethered – it will float away in search of a tree to tangle in.

This is a massive topic, and the more challenging because – while we can tell our children all about God’s offer of adoption into Abraham’s family, communion’s invitation to feast with God Himself, the mystery of Christ and His bride, and countless other truths of belonging – the thing itself cannot be told. Belonging can only be known though experience.

Thus, by devious routs I bring you back again to the topic of stories. Because: Stories experienced together can create a shared language – can hardly do otherwise – and this shared language can be like thread that stitches our parallel lives into a quilt of togetherness.

When someone in my house is accidentally hurt, and uses Winnie-the-Pooh’s protest, “You missed the balloon!” that’s a stitch in the quilt.

When an elderly, believing neighbor passes away, and we refer to her “crossing the dark river,” that’s a stitch in the quilt.

When we describe an evening of hospitality to a young couple as being “heralds of the mended wood,” that’s a stitch in the quilt.

When I look up into an apple tree festooned with children and, for no obvious reason, scold, “You monkeys, you! You give me back my caps!” that’s a stitch in the quilt.

Consider, if you understood any of the references above, the glimmer of empathy you felt. Notice how it made you feel, perhaps only a little, that you and I shared something good – good enough to keep you interested, and keep you reading. Or you may even have felt that my family were “your kind of people.”

That’s the power in a language of shared stories. That’s a power we have at our disposal to give our children a place of belonging. And that’s really my greatest hope for relating to my children as they grow; that they will feel we shared something good enough to keep them interested, and keep them (even figuratively) coming home.


Featured image by freepik
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
James D. Witmer
James D. Witmer
James is a second-generation homeschool dad with a lifetime experience reading stories in books and in the outdoors. He’s the author of children’s books A Year in the Big Old Garden, Beside the Pond, and The Strange New Dog, and continues to write about adventure, backyard wildlife, and realizing there are no ordinary places.

You can find him at JamesDWitmer.com or on Instagram @JamesDWitmer.
James D. Witmer
Latest posts by James D. Witmer (see all)
  • Rascal, by Sterling North - January 19, 2022
  • Playing (Your Own) Role - January 17, 2022
  • Hear, Smell, Feel – Together - November 8, 2021

Filed Under: Fostering Imagination

Get Story Warren in Your Inbox

Comments

  1. Annie Barnett says

    April 4, 2016 at 11:38 am

    I love this, and the idea of shared stories from literature. I grew up surrounded with a lot of shared family stories – retelling memories and adventures of aunts and cousins and great-grandparents. But I love how you’ve connected the idea of shared story to literature.

    Reply
    • James Witmer says

      April 4, 2016 at 8:33 pm

      Thanks, Annie!

      Reply
  2. Lori Tilden Leeke says

    April 4, 2016 at 1:03 pm

    I NEED to know where that reference “heralds of the mended wood” comes from – my heart yearns to know. Please, tell me.

    Reply
    • James Witmer says

      April 4, 2016 at 8:35 pm

      Lori, I know, it resonates even when you don’t know why, doesn’t it? 🙂

      The book is SD Smith’s _The Green Ember_, and you can get it either on Amazon, or here in the Story Warren Store (link above)!

      Reply
      • Elisha Wolter says

        June 8, 2021 at 2:39 am

        The Green Ember brought me so much hope & light for what is to come while I read it through the pandemic last year. I knew exactly what you were referring to when I read it & I breathed a sigh of deep contentment, *aahh the glorious mended woods *.

        Reply
        • James D. Witmer says

          June 8, 2021 at 7:21 am

          Yes!

          Reply
  3. Laurie says

    April 7, 2016 at 3:54 pm

    Oh, my family has so many of these and just thinking them in my head brings back the sound of my dad’s voice and the twinkle in his eye. Stitches in a family’s quilt indeed.

    Reply
  4. Kayti Phillips says

    July 4, 2021 at 4:07 pm

    The Mended Wood reference made me smile, it’s one of my and my sisters’ favorite books! My sisters and I share many quotes from books we’ve read together that definitely bring us closer, usually causing us to laugh the moment we say them. Our dad has shared many of his favorite books with us, but he wasn’t much of a reader until he was older, so my sisters are just now starting to appreciate them.
    Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I do believe that stories have the power to bring people together!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get Story Warren in Your Inbox

Join us on Facebook

Story Warren
  • Latest Posts
  • Store

Copyright © 2012 - 2022 Story Warren, LLC · Site by Design by Insight

Copyright © 2022 · Story Warren on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in