Book Review #11 – “The Cookie Tree” by Jay Williams (this post is in process and incomplete at this time)
Book Review #11 – “The Cookie Tree” by Jay Williams; published in 1967 by Parents Magazine Press.
“The Village of Owlgate was quiet and tidy, and nothing surprising ever happened there. Everything had a place, and everything was in its place. Everybody knew why things happened and everything happened just as it was supposed to. Nothing surprising ever happened, because nothing surprising was allowed to happen. ‘That way,’ said the people of Owlgate with satisfaction, ‘you always know where you are.’”
Overview of Story. This children’s story that will inspire adults starts with the excerpt above. Then the story continues with the magical appearance of a tree laden with chocolate cookies, smack dab in the middle of the town square of what appears to be a walled medieval village. The children were the first to notice it, and the first to appreciate it for what it was: a present from a friendly magician. The adults, however, with limited faith and stunted imaginations, were doubters from the start, because this tree didn’t fit into their perception of reality. Some laughed in derision, some fretted over its edibility, some shook with fear, believing it to be a dark warning of impending disaster. The mayor claimed the tree wasn’t really there, because no mention of it was made in the Town Records. It was unexpected, it was unlikely, it was out of their control, and so they didn’t allow it to exist. During all this hubbub, the children were encircling the tree, enraptured with the silver bark, the sun-drenched leaves, and the glossy brown cookies.
While the village people were saying things like, “It’s witchcraft, cut it down,” and “I don’t believe in it, therefore I will not discuss it,” and argument followed argument, the children were shaking the tree, rattling the cookies down to the cobblestones, and joyously stuffing the cookies into their appreciative little mouths. And before the mayor could fulfill his plan of felling the tree before it hurt anyone, the tree quietly folded up smaller and smaller until it disappeared. The closing line is, “Somewhere, a magician smiled with satisfaction.”
Why do I go to this length to describe a children’s story? Because one of the greatest dangers facing any individual Christian (or Christian institution) is that s/he evolves into a village of Owlgate, where the unpredictable Person of Jesus and the surprising mystery of grace is somehow neatly packaged, wrapped in a plain box, and placed on a dusty shelf where it won’t throw anyone off balance. While a church’s fearful and unimaginative adults are arguing over likely formulas for spiritual success, the child-like are gazing at the wonderful gift of Jesus, surprised and thrilled, tasting of His goodness. While some are leaving nothing to chance (divine or otherwise), closed to sacred whimsy and holy surprise, others are open to new truths, to the Lord whose mercies are new every morning.
Maybe one of the chief qualities of being child-like is being open to aspects of the truth that come from unlikely sources, open to surprises in the Faith. Maybe we miss out on important ingredients in discipleship when we close ourselves off from unlikely influences that put “ants in the pants of faith,” as Frederick Buechner once said. Do we spend too much time searching for likely suspects, for fool-proof recipes for a victorious life? Are we sometimes too intentional? Is our God becoming predictable in our faith? Wouldn’t a life with an amazing God be more adventuresome, more stimulating, if we were open to surprise, accepting the fact that this God was outside of our control? When dealing with fathomless mysteries like the Trinity and the deep truths of Scripture, it seems wise to open a window in our imagination and let in some fresh air, as long as one remains consistent with the orthodox Faith. We Christians are too often smug in the faith, content in our ignorance, missing out on the adventure, and we shut down the Spirit’s whimsy before unlikely, holy surprise can put a fresh breeze into the room. In this way, Chesterton’s famous quip is much more believable… “He who has the Faith has the fun!”
Random Thoughts on the Virtues of Surprise:
(1.) Welcoming Surprise while Exploring God. Seeking God and following Him is basically exploring God as the Final Frontier. The Lord is the greatest Wonder of the World, and believers are adventurers, intensely curious about the nature of God’s being. Adventurers are always open to surprises in the hunt to know more about God. The thrill of discovery implies the pleasure of surprise, and it requires one step at a time into a safe unknown. The Person of God is in many ways uncharted territory, eternal and unfathomable, so there is always more to be discovered about God around every corner. The holy adventure is a lifelong quest filled with surprises, exploring and discovering with the vision of C. S. Lewis in his Narnia tales, “Further Up and Further In!”
(2.) Welcoming Surprise by Embracing Interruptions. It’s easy to forget that Jesus had a Ministry of Interruptions. Most of His miracles seem to have been done during His countless interruptions as He went from one place to another. One NT scholar estimated that there were as many as 35 interruptions in the first three chapters in the Gospel of Mark alone! It turns out that Christ’s agenda was to be interrupted! His to-do list was to be constantly detoured, and whatever rhythm His life had was constantly being redirected. Perhaps the interruptions Jesus welcomed were actually the main point of His ministry. All those seemingly random detours in His ministry were embraced by Jesus as heaven-sent sacred moments, and not a nuisance, and of course were not random in the least. These gospel interruptions were kairos moments, opportunities that presented themselves to Him in the fullness of time. Interruptions were accepted as timely moments for the Lord to demonstrate His compassion, mercy, patience, and grace. With Christ, He didn’t worry about whatever project He was working on. Mere efficiency of His time wasn’t even close to a concern of His.
“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own’, or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life – the life God is sending one day by day: what one calls one’s ‘real life’ is a phantom of one’s own imagination.” (The Letters of C.S. Lewis).
“If you listen carefully you can hear the truth from the unlikeliest sources, especially from the unlikeliest sources, from an enemy, from a stranger, from children, from nuts, from overheard conversations, from stupid preachers… Are not great discoveries also made at the unlikeliest moments?” (Walker Percy, The Second Coming, p.181)