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Today on Renewing youg Mind, RC Sproul reads his children's book, the Lightlings. Here's a preview now.
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After the Lightlings left the garden, the King began to remove his lights from that garden, and the garden soon became cold and covered with weeds, thorns and sticky briars. It was awful living in the dreadful darkness all the time, where the only light they ever saw was in barely lit shadows that danced in the forest. In fact, they couldn't tell the difference anymore between night and day.
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Most of us know John 3:16, but do you know John 3:19? The light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. As you'll hear today on a special edition of Renewing youg Mind, not everyone is afraid of the dark. Some are afraid of the light. RC Sproul was committed to bringing the truth of Scripture to the next generation, and he had a wonderful ability to do that through his stories. The Lightlings, which you'll hear him read today, is one of my favorites. You can request your own copy when you give a year end donation in support of Renewing youg Mind and Reaching the next generation@renewingyourmind.org we'll also send you a second children's book written by Ligonier's Vice Chairman, Sinclair Ferguson. It's called Jesus, Strong and Kind. You'll hear from Dr. Ferguson later in today's episode. So that's two children's books when you donate before midnight tonight at renewingyourmind.org well, I encourage you to gather your family together to enjoy a tale that captures the essence of the biblical story of redemption. Here's Dr. Sproul.
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One evening in a house in a quiet neighborhood, a little boy was getting ready for bed. The boy's name was Charlie Cobb, and as his mother was tucking him in, she covered him with blankets to make him warm and cozy. And then she knelt by his bed and prayed with him. Finally, she stood, leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. Charlie looked up at her and said, mommy, please don't forget to turn on the night light before you leave my room. Mrs. Cobb smiled at him and said, don't worry, sweetheart, I'll be sure to turn on the light. I won't leave you in the dark. So Charlie's mother gave him one last kiss, finished tucking him in, and then turned on the night light next to his bed. Just as she was ready to leave, Charlie said, mommy, why am I afraid of the dark? She said, that's a hard Question to answer. Charlie, I think we're going to have to save it for Grandpa. He's coming for dinner tomorrow, so you can ask him then. All right, Mommy. Charlie said, I'll wait until tomorrow and ask Grandpa about it. The next day, just as Charlie's mother had promised, Grandpa came for dinner. And before they moved to the table, Charlie went and sat on his knee and said, grandpa, may I ask you a question that's really bothering me? Grandpa smiled and said, of course, Charlie. Tell me what you'd like to know. And so Charlie said, grandpa, why is it that I'm afraid of the dark? And why do so many people I know seem to be afraid of the dark, too? Grandpa looked at Charlie and said, that's a very good question. But did you know that not only are lots of people afraid of the dark, many people are afraid of the light. Afraid of the light? Said Charlie. Why would that be? Grandpa said, to understand that I'm afraid, I'm going to have to start at the beginning. In fact, at the very beginning. Charlie loved it when Grandpa told him stories. So he curled up next to him and waited for Grandpa to begin. Grandpa started his story the way he always did. Once upon a time, there was a great king who was the King of Light. He lived in the light. He made the light. And his light was so perfect and so pure that he was called the King Without a Shadow. This great King of Light made a group of people. And he made them so that they could shine brightly just as he did. He called them his little Lightlings. He set the Lightlings in a beautiful garden that he prepared for them. A garden that was full of bright sunshine. And the sun bathed the garden every day and helped the flowers, plants and the fruit to grow in great abundance. The bright light of the sun helped keep everyone warm in the garden. And the Lightlings loved it when the king came to visit them at the end of the day. But then one day, something terrible happened. The Lightlings decided to do what they wanted to do instead of what their king had commanded them to do. So they disobeyed the king and they sinned against him. And the very second that they sinned, their light became dim. And they were filled with shame and with great embarrassment. And so they ran as fast as they could to get away from the king. They. They didn't want the King of Light to see them. They ran out of the garden and into the woods and hid themselves in the darkest place that they could find. From then on, they were afraid of the light because they knew that wherever the light was, the king would be, and the King would see them in their shame. Now, after the Lightlings left the garden, the king began to remove his lights from that garden. And the garden soon became cold and covered with weeds, thorns and sticky briars. And the Lightlings moved further and further into the woods until they lived in a place that was almost completely covered in darkness. It was so dark that they had to grope around as if they were blind, feeling their way through the forest. Often they would trip and fall, scuffing their knees and bruising themselves. It was awful, living in the dreadful darkness all the time, where the only light they ever saw was in barely lit shadows that danced in the forest. In fact, they couldn't tell the difference anymore between night and day. Then one night, or perhaps it was even day, far off in the distance, they saw blinding light shining through the trees. They could see this light coming from miles and miles away, and they were frightened by it. They thought that the light meant that the King was coming to find them, to punish them for their sins. So most of the lightnings began to stumble quickly away from the light. But some of the Lightling children were so amazed and interested in the light that they decided to see from where it was coming. So they set off and traveled for many miles. It took them a long time, but as they moved, they saw the light shining brighter and brighter. And finally they came to a clearing in the forest. And in the middle of the clearing, they saw a father Lightling, a mother lightling, and a little baby who was shining like the sun. The blazing light seemed to be coming right out of the baby himself. So the Lightlings who saw it were shocked and surprised. And they asked the father, who is this baby? Where did he come from? The Father Lightling answered, he is not my son. He is the son of the King of Light. The king has given him to us as a special gift. He has been born for us. And when he grows up, he will be called the Light of the world. And there will be no darkness strong enough to hide his light. No darkness deep enough to send his light away. When they heard this, the Lightning Children knelt down at the baby's feet. And they began to worship him in fear and reverence. When they stood up again, their own faces were shining. But the light that was shining in their faces was not coming from inside them. It was a reflection of the light that was coming out of the baby. The Lightlings were now surrounded with the light of the child they had come to visit. They rushed back to their homes, their friends and their families as fast as their feet could carry them. And when they got home, they were still shining. The other lightnings were frightened at the sight of them. They said, what happened to you? So the Lightling children told their story. We saw a baby who was shining with light. He is the son of the king of light. The king has given us a child. He's given us his own son to be the light of the world. The Lightlings noticed that already there was more light in the forest. Now they could begin to see where they were going. They could walk without falling. They could run and play without bumping into trees or rocks and getting bruised. Yet some still hid from the light, while others realized they didn't need to be afraid anymore. They saw that living in the light was much better than the darkness they were used to. Grandpa looked at Charlie and said, you see, Charlie, we're afraid of the dark because we were made to live in the light. And someday, all of us who love this sun will live with him forever in heaven. And when we go to the dwelling place of the son who is now the light of the world, there will be no darkness at all. Not only that, there will be no moon. There won't be any stars or even a sun. There will be no night lights, no lamps, no lanterns, not even candles. Joni said, well, how can there be light if there's no sun or lamps or candles? How can that be? His grandfather replied, in the place where the king's son now lives, the light that shines forever still comes from inside of him. He's the light of heaven. And all who come into his presence will never be in darkness again.
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Wow.
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Charlie said, that sure is a wonderful thing to look forward to. And Grandpa replied, charlie, let me make a suggestion. From now on, every time that you see the sun or the moon, the stars, where every time you light a candle or turn on your little night light, remember the story of the child that the king of light brought into the darkness of this world. And remember that he gave us this baby as a present. Charlie, as long as you remember that, you will never, ever, ever have to be afraid of the dark again.
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What a beautiful story you just heard, R.C. sproul read. It's titled the Lightlings, and you can request your copy along with Sinclair Ferguson's children's book, Jesus, Strong and Kind when you give a year end donation@renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343 when we first featured R.C. sproul reading this story on Renewing youg Mind, we invited him into the studio and our President and CEO, Chris Larson sat down with him to talk more about the Light links. Here's that conversation now. RC it's clear that you delight to pack deep theological truths into these children's stories. Why is it important, from your perspective, to put good theology into children's stories?
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Partly it comes out of my own experience of being a father and a grandfather, where as long as I can remember, I love to try to regale little kids with stories that I would make up right on the spot and spin off the top of my head. And out of that experience of just having fun with stories came this idea of using children's stories as a vehicle or a conduit to try to teach important theological truths to kids, but not only the kids, but I understand that most of these stories are are read to their children by their parents. And so I'm hoping that their parents will understand more deeply some of the principal truths of our faith because of these ideas. Now, I've been in teaching for over 40 years and I used to say at the beginning of my teaching career that it was my job as a teacher to take difficult concepts and ideas and communicate them in such a way that the students could understand it. Because I said any professor could take his notes from graduate school and just recite them to the students and not worry about whether they understood it. And so many times it seemed like the professor himself was just regurgitating information that he had taken in and now was putting it out. And he had never really digested it either. I'm saying you don't really understand a concept until you're able to communicate it to a six year old child. Sometimes we hide behind abstract language and sophisticated verbiage to conceal our own ignorance, whereas the goal is always to be understood, to make the word of God, which is already clear in itself, as clear as we possibly can when we communicate it to others, and a good discipline to practice that is the discipline of trying to teach it to little children.
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RC why is this particular story important to children and their parents?
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I created this little story for our children's service at our church for Christmas Eve. It's really a Christmas story about the coming into the world of the light of the world. And I hope that this will help little children and their parents reflect on the deep, deep, deep meaning of what took place that night in Bethlehem when the light broke into the darkness and the darkness could not overcome it.
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And that's a good reminder for each of us, but especially for our children and our grandchildren. The Lightlings is beautifully illustrated, just like all of Dr. Sproul's children's books, and it's a tale that you'll return to time and and time again. You can own your own copy or get one as a gift when you visit renewingyourmind.org with a year end donation or you can call us at 800-435-4343. This is a one day offer so go to renewingyourmind.org while there's still time. I mentioned that Today Only will also send you a copy of Sinclair Ferguson's children's book Jesus Strong and Kind. And While traveling with Dr. Ferguson in Australia for Renewing youg Mind Live earlier this year, he and I sat down with Christian and Australian TV personality Colin Buchanan. He is co writer of the song Jesus Strong and Kind, the song that Dr. Ferguson expanded on for his children's book of the same name. After a long breakfast sitting across from the Sydney Opera House and having met each other in person for the first time, they let me pull out my microphone to ask them about this unique collaboration.
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Well, our paths crossed through a mutual friend. I think that was the first contact. For some reason we had email contact, didn't we Colin? And then Colin was involved in writing this song, hymn Jesus Strong and Kind. And I really liked it because it reminded me of the hymns that Horatius Bonar had written for children which were very centred on Christ, very simple, and they're sung today as though they were adult heavens. But many of them were for children and I thought that would make the basis for a children's book. And I suggested to our mutual friend that he should get Colin to write a book on the basis of the song. But I also added if Colin doesn't want to do it, if it's okay with the songwriters, I would do it. And for some reason Colin disappointed the publisher by not doing it and I did it and Colin wrote the foreword to it.
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The thing that, on reflection that I love about that particular song that I co wrote with Johnny Robinson and Rich Thompson, who are part of the City of Light team, is that a song that caught the ear of a Scottish theologian and Bible teacher? Catches the ear of three year olds. And it catches the ear in the same way. I mean, this is what God's truth does, doesn't it? A song that says if I thirst I can come to him because no one will satisfy. Well, that's the promise of Jesus just made to rhyme a song if I am weak, if I think fear these are resonant experiences of all of us. So it's lovely that that song has found a way to manifest, just allow itself to be amplified in that way in a book.
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My children have seen you on Australian television presenting on Play School. They've also seen you at concerts singing Christian songs and claiming Christian truths. Was it your time in the church and your desire to serve the younger generation that actually helped you have success in secular children television?
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The minister at our church, who didn't articulate it so much as just modelled the fact that when you're bringing the word to kids, you don't compromise anything of the rigour that the form might change slightly and the mode that. That was sort of the mindset. So I discovered music and singing and memory verses as a way of just bringing the word to children. As a teenager, sort of go through the Sunday school system and you become a teacher was the. Was the model.
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I think, in my case, Nathan, I really. From even when I was a theological student, I think I had a desire, within whatever capacity I had to put into expression the conviction that all of the gospel is for all of God's people all of the time, and that all of theology is also for all of God's people. And so I always had a kind of desire to be able to communicate at every level. If somebody said to me, I like the way you talk down to the children, I would be really upset because I'm not talking down to the children or writing down or dumbing down. I'm talking to the children.
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Ministry to children doesn't involve dilution, but distillation. And that. That notion is very helpful, which. And I'm just ready to find something that is not too big for kids, but it's something. I think children need to know this and then take the time to start to think, how do I craft this into something that's apprehendable by children?
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All we need is found in Christ, Calvin says, so we dare not look anywhere else. And to think that children are learning this, you know, from the basement up. It just felt to me like such a wonderful way of helping young people and then older people who I think now love. I mean, we've sung this in our church when I don't know whether people know, maybe it wasn't a children's song, but it's for everybody. I loved the song and I loved writing the book. And I guess because the people who wrote the song love the Lord Jesus and I love the Lord Jesus, and we want the children to love the Lord Jesus. I thought it would be great to put into more words the few words that are actually in the song.
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Well, Colin Sinclair, thank you both so much for being on Renewing youg Mind today.
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Thank you, Nathan.
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It's great to be here.
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That was Colin Buchanan, co writer of the song Jesus Strong and Kind with Ligonier teaching fellow Sinclair Ferguson, author of the children's book of the same name. And we'll send you a hardcover copy of that book along with R.C. sproul's children's book the Lightnings, when you make a year end gift in support of Renewing youg Mind and the global outreach of ligonier ministries@renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. Thank you for your generosity this December. Jesus is strong and kind. And as we approach Christmas, RC Sproul will help us focus on the incarnation and the coming of the Messiah. So I hope you'll join us beginning Monday here on Renewing youg Mind.
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It.