Literature – From Him, Through Him, and To Him

One of my greatest joys in teaching at a classical Christian school is that we have the opportunity to pursue every subject as being from Him, through Him, and to Him: that is, to examine every subject as created by Him, sustained by Him, and given for His own glory.  Last week, in our study of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in our 5th and 6th grade literature class, we began to investigate the emotion of jealousy as it reveals itself in the novel. In one particular scene from the book, Tom and Becky Thatcher, the girl that he is interested in, are tormenting one another by spending time not with each other but with other girls and boys respectively. They are doing this in an attempt to make each other jealous, but in the end they succeed only in driving each other away.

As a continuation of our study of jealousy, we looked at Deuteronomy 4:24 to see how the Scriptures describe God as a jealous God. We then contrasted the way in which God is jealous for His people with the way in which humans are typically jealous of one another. However, we did not stop at this point. We then went on to talk about how God has placed a picture of His jealousy for His people in the covenant relationships of husbands and wives. Just as a husband or wife is jealous for the affections of his or her spouse, so God is jealous for our praise and adoration.

What a joy it is to be able to read classic literature, – like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – and to be able to draw out the universal themes that last far beyond the stories themselves! As you go about this week, I pray that your heart would rejoice in the majesty of the Greatest Storyteller Who has painted His glory upon history in His work through our Lord Jesus. And as we grow further in our love of that Gospel story, I pray that it would propel us to take every story we read and relate the universal themes of truth, goodness, and beauty present in those stories to His glorious truth, goodness, and beauty.