Seeing Jesus in Everyday Stories

As a mom, reading stories with my kids is a big part of our day.   When I first started reading fairy tales to my daughters when they were infants, I was taken aback by how much in them was antithetical to the Gospel.  Pinocchio especially stood out to me.  Here’s a lonely bachelor who longs for a child, a blue fairy comes and gives life to a puppet, promising him that real life will come if he can be a good boy for a while.  Pinocchio, I have such better news for you!  God will grant you new life through the Holy Spirit, and it is a gift!  You can’t do anything to earn it, you can’t do anything to lose it, Jesus did all the work on the cross.  Knowing and believing that it actually happened is called faith.  We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8).  All of a sudden this story that wasn’t sitting right with me became an amazing opportunity to teach my kids about Jesus!  I began researching all the classic fairy tales we know and love and finding common themes in them that are things we on this earth identify with.  Themes which can be used to point us to Jesus, who he is and what he’s done for us.  So many fairy tales have similarities to Old Testament Bible stories as well and can be used to relate our children back to scripture.  I’ll be posting these themes in the future.  But for now, let me show you how much is in the story of Pinocchio that can point us directly to God……

1.  Geppetto was a carpenter just like Joseph (Matthew 13:55).  He adopted a son, just like Joseph (Matthew 1:18-25).  This is also a good opportunity to teach about our adoption as sons and daughters of God (Galatians 4:6-7, Ephesians 1:5).   Geppetto went out seeking his son, just as Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). 

2. Pinocchio can be seen as a representation of the typical person running from their heavenly father seeking pleasure and glory and fame, who suffers the consequences of making choices he thinks make him free, but in reality he is enslaved to sin and needs to be saved from his stupidity!  But just as in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) God forgives us and rejoices when we return to him!  There are also many verses throughout the book of Proverbs that give us wisdom about our friendships and avoiding people who will lead us into trouble which would have been helpful for Pinocchio to have learned and protect him from following others into bad decisions. 

3. They are swallowed by a whale!!!!  For goodness sake, obviously just like  the story of Jonah!  Even in the fact of God’s providence in our lives, orchestrating for Pinocchio and Geppetto to end up together in the belly of a whale

I’m sure there are so many lessons even just in this story that I haven’t caught yet.  Once I learned to be aware of themes like these in stories, they started to just pop out at me.  Fairy Tales represent our dreams, our hopes for the best outcomes in our lives.  What is so amazing is that in reading fairy tales in relation to Christ, there is no comparison!  The reality of who God is and what he’s done for us is our happily ever after!!!