Treasure Trove Thursday: Dylo's World and Redemption

Take a Visit to Dylo’s World

Since I’ve been thinking about fantasy and fiction and legend and Story of late, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to point you toward an amazing blog by one of my friend’s (Scott Anderson of Desiring God) sons . . . who is only eight years old . . . and who has a REALLY lively imagination. His little fan-site blog has attracted the attention of the president of the the game company (who reads the blog daily!) as well as some independent gamer magazines. It’s pretty cool. You should especially check out his “homemade” creature.

And that leads me to this point: We are amazed at the creativity and wonder and excitement that children like Aiden and Hannah have with fantasy worlds. What is it that causes them to create imaginary creatures or write fantasy stories that possess, to some degree, "the inner consistency of reality"? What is at the root of their desire for “it” to be real? Whether it’s creating a story or creating your own stuffed Dylo creature, children seem to have a profound sense of the Creator-creature relationship and the world's need of redemption. Moreover, from the earliest ages, the idea of “story” seems to be imprinted on their hearts. More than just a desire, children seem to manifest a deep need to pretend, create make-believe worlds, and breakthrough to the happy ending. And they don’t have to be taught this; they just do it.

I don’t want to make more of this than one should, but often, when I read my daughter's stories or I take a visit to Dylo’s world, I hear little echoes of the Creator-creature relationship and the Great Story of redemption because I'm supposed to. It seems to me that many little "s" stories like this point to the big "S" Story because what man ultimately longs for, desires, groans for is big "R" redemption. Could it be that children (and adults) write stories like these because deep down they know that what the world really needs, what humanity really needs is for the Creator of all things to redeem us?