A couple of weeks ago I had the joy of taking our kids to Disneyland in Paris. I fully expected to hate it, but to be honest I found myself loving it. Our photo with the esteemed James P Sullivan (from Monsters Inc) is my new favourite thing. The kids loved it as well, I guess. They’re old enough to spare me from endless spinning round on little kids’ rides (I’m not good at being spun around) and instead could be my rollercoaster buddies for the few days. We’d been to a few other amusement parks with the kids but the thing that seems to separate Disney from the other places is the way Disney uses story to take their rides to the next level.
Disney gets something about children; they see how powerful story is for children and so use it to immerse the children in the ride, making the whole experience much bigger than just riding a roller-coaster. We loved Space Mountain, when you go on a pretend space mission and get fired up into the space before returning via a track, nearly bumping into countless planets. Similarly the Buzz Lightyear ride, where you shoot Zurg with a laser, and The Hollywood Towers Hotel, both places stories at the centre of the experience. With all these rides, the story begins from the moment you start queuing and continues right up until you emerge from the inevitable gift shop at the end. It’s brilliant.
We love stories as adults, but for children they are even more important. As Christians it’s vital that our children are regularly hearing and enjoying stories from the Bible. They will love them and become immersed in them and, as they grow, they will be able to use them to find meaning in their lives and process events going on around them. Within these pages you will find a little gift from us of a story by Bob Hartman, Bob is an extraordinary storyteller, bringing amazing life and imagination to them.
The story will feed your faith as you read it and that of your kids too. To be honest, there’s loads of good stuff throughout these pages and if you read and did it all it would be really good (I should probably endorse all of it!). But if you only have the time or the confidence to try one thing (and that’s massively OK, we’re not here to put you under pressure), then open up that story and read it with your kids. Our faith is built on stories; let’s begin to pass them on to the next generation.