“Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?”

Luke 11:11

When the kids were younger, Barb was in charge of reading to them. I would help out where I could. But understandably, the kids preferred to have mom read them stories, and she was very good at that. I did not see the need to mess with something that was working. So, I didn’t. As the three eldest got older and started to do their own thing when it came to reading, I got the privilege to spend some of the time reading to our youngest, Michelle. Those times were not always part of a consistent, daily routine, but I tried my best to accommodate whenever Michelle desired to have story time.

When such times occurred, the favorite place for reading books was on her bed. When she started grade school, she had what we called a “captain’s” bed. Her particular captain’s bed was not quite as high as a bunk bed, but getting to her mattress did require climbing up a few steps and figuring out a way to sit comfortably in a small space with my head relatively close to the ceiling. When I was younger, such a feat was not too challenging. If I tried to do such a thing today, I am confident that it would be a little harder.

We enjoyed reading many books together. But our favorite by far were the Magic Tree House books written by Mary Pope Osborne. It seemed especially appropriate that we read these books from a space where we had the advantage to look down at the world from above. The Magic Tree House books included many volumes, and we didn’t get through the entire series. In fact, sometimes we would skip volumes and even switch from the main series to a book that was part of the Merlin Mission subseries.

The stories featured the tales of Jack and Annie Smith who were sent on adventures by another character, Morgan Le Fay, using their tree house for transportation. Jack and Annie’s parents assumed that when they left the house to play, they simply went to the tree house for some nice, quiet gatherings. But a dangerous adventure awaited them each time they entered the tree house. They spent some time with dinosaurs, pirates, and dragons. They made their way to the moon, to the Titanic, and to Hawaii. They got to meet George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and William Shakespeare. And, in the process, they learned more about history and legends and, perhaps most importantly, how to work together to survive and return home at the end of each of those adventures.

We tried our best to read a chapter each evening. That didn’t always work. Sometimes I got a call regarding a pastoral emergency, and we needed to stop before we got to the end of the chapter. Sometimes Michelle would fall asleep a little early, and I would pause the reading for another time. Thank goodness for bookmarks. If it was late enough, and I was tired enough, it was not outside the realm of possibility that I might fall asleep to the sound of my own voice as I was reading the book. On most occasions, we made it through the chapter, and then I would proclaim that it was time to go to sleep. Usually that was okay. But there were times when Michelle did not want to be alone in her room, so I would lie down in the bed with her until she would fall asleep. Then I would quietly climb down from the bed and return to my evening activities. The problem was that on many occasions I fell asleep before she did, and an hour or more would pass before I woke on my own or before Barb would come find me and let me know that I had fallen asleep.

Jesus asked, “Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?” The answer to that question seems so incredibly obvious for me – of course not! I hate snakes. Why would I do that to my kid? In fact, why would I be involved in the act of carrying snakes around to give to anyone in the first place? I wouldn’t. And why would anyone else?

What makes the scriptural question a tough question for me is that, in the context of the scripture, the point Jesus seems to make is that if earthly parents can figure out what to do for their kids, why can’t God figure out what to do for us, the divine’s kids? The problem is that, after more than 32 years of parental experience, I still haven’t figured out what is always the best response to the requests made by my children. But I am pretty sure that reading fun stories to Michelle when she asked for a bedtime story was one of my wiser decisions. At least I had learned that lesson quickly.

These sentences can be found in most of the Magic Tree House books. “The wind started to blow. The tree house started to spin. It spun faster and faster. Then everything was still. Absolutely still.” That’s when you knew a new adventure was about to start. The adventure always followed the stillness. In the Old Testament, Elijah found the same thing. After the stillness came the voice of God (I Kings 19:13). And that voice invited Elijah into the adventure of a lifetime. Through my reading adventures with Michelle, I came to appreciate the rare and wonderful moments of stillness as well. For I discovered that following the stillness, a great adventure was certain to follow.