The Kingdom Comes

One of the most formative books I remember as a child, and also one of my earliest introductions to the fantasy genre, was The Kingdom Tales trilogy by David and Karen Mains. Intended as a Christian allegory with parables and morals, the books weave a theologically rich collection of tales spanning from an Old Testament-style beginning to a Church Age end. While multiple articles could be written about the many stories and takeaways from this trilogy, I want to draw attention to one scene—or quotation—in particular that has always stuck with me ever since childhood. 

The main character in these books is a boy introduced to the reader as Scarboy. While not the name he was born with, that is the name given as he lives in the city of the Enchanter, who forces his subjects to live in the night and sleep in the day, as well as have horrible lives in Enchanted City. Scarboy escapes after his mother’s death to the forest his mother always spoke about. There, he finds the King’s realm called Great Park, where he is kept safe from the Enchanter, and learns to live in the light. Scarboy finds out that his real name is Hero, and as the books progress, learns to overcome his fears and walk by faith instead of sight. 

While Hero is living in Great Park, he hears the Rangers, who guard the realm from the Enchanter’s Burners and Naysayers, giving out their watch cry: 

“How goes the world?”

“The world goes not well. But the Kingdom comes!”

Hero takes courage in these words, even if he doesn’t fully understand their meaning the first time he hears them. He doesn’t know what a kingdom is or its purpose, until he asks a girl he has met in Great Park named Amanda, who tells him the first rule of Great Park: “A Kingdom is Any Place Where the King Rules.” She further explains to him, “...the Kingdom is not only here. It is anywhere the King is and is obeyed. Someday the King’s rule will be restored in Enchanted City—and everywhere. That’s why we call out, ‘To the King! To the Restoration!’”

In this particular chapter, Hero learns what the kingdom is, and how it is protected by the Rangers, who are anyone who loves the King, who helps the weak and broken, and who have courageous hearts. 

Outside of these pages, the Christian church is safeguarded by her own rangers. Those who are faithful to God’s calling and who fulfill these duties in their own way, whether it be as pastors or members of the congregation. Those who help the ones in need and encourage those who are struggling, even if it’s just by praying for them. In spite of the injustice in the world and the way the real enchanter seeks to bend the world to his own evil plans, those who are Christ’s have a flame of courage within them to uphold the truth and to keep that light burning. Even if that means reminding fellow believers of the Light of the world at times when for them that light appears to have gone out. 

Because yes, the world goes not well. It has not gone well since the Fall, and it continues to spiral further and further into chaos and unrest. One simply has to turn on the news or talk to their neighbor and you hear the latest thing that has gone wrong. 

But even so. The kingdom will come. It may be tomorrow. It may be a millennia from now. But it will come. Not even Satan and his craftiest of plans will stop God’s sovereign purposes. 

“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’ Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ And He said to me, ‘Write, for these words are true and faithful.’” (Revelation 21:1-5 NKJV)

Even as the Rangers shout words of encouragement through the long hours of their watch upon Great Park’s walls, reminding one another that despite the evils of the world, the kingdom will come, so Christ encouraged His disciples in John 16:33:

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Thus we are called to encourage one another with reminders of the Gospel and the promises of our faithful God. The world goes not well, but His kingdom is still coming. And until that day, let us live in light of that hope. 

And perhaps this is the greatest argument to be made for children’s books (or any fiction books, for that matter) to resonate with kingdom truth. Even Jesus spoke in parables to His disciples to better illustrate concepts that they could not yet understand. Stories are important. They have immense value. The tales of truth and hope that I read as a child still impact and encourage me today, and this is why our fallen world, saturated in fiction that dishonors God and is full of darkness and despair, needs these stories more than ever. And for those of us that tell such stories, your words have value and are desperately needed. 

In his book on Christian creativity and calling, Adorning the Dark, Andrew Peterson writes the following: 

“Those of us who write, who sing, who paint, must remember that to a child a song may glow like a nightlight in a scary bedroom. It may be the only thing holding back the monsters. That story may be the only beautiful, true thing that makes it through all the ugliness of a little girl’s world to rest in her secret heart. May we take that seriously. It is our job, it is our ministry, it is the sword we swing in the Kingdom, to remind children that the good guys win, that the stories are true, and that a fool’s hope may be the best kind.”

Before I knew about The Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings or any other classic Christian fantasy or fiction tale, I read The Kingdom Tales and was encouraged by the stories presented there. Rereading them as an adult, I understood the characters and themes even more, and though fiction, I found my faith strengthened by the simple reminders of kingdom truth. That our King is still on His throne and He can use apparent defeats to bring about His victories just as He can use our weaknesses and failings to show His divine purposes and glory. 

But we still fight against our own enchanter, who seeks to silence our witness of the glorious Gospel and quench our desire to write stories of truth. Yet in spite of that, may his attempts to drown out our calling to show forth God’s grace and goodness only invigorate our faith and desire to speak of God’s faithfulness. 

As Andrew Peterson concludes in Adorning the Dark, 

“This is why the Enemy wants you to think you have no song to write, no story to tell, no painting to paint. He wants to quiet you. So sing. Let the Word by which the Creator made you fill your imagination, guide your pen, lead you from note to note until a melody is strung together like a glimmering constellation in the clear sky. Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor, too, by making worlds and works of beauty that blanket the earth like flowers. Let your homesickness keep you always from spiritual slumber. Remember that it is in the fellowship of saints, of friends and family, that your gift will grow best, and will find its best expression. And until the Kingdom comes in its fullness, bend your will to the joyful, tearful telling of its coming. Write about that. Write about that, and never stop.” 

To the King, and to His Restoration! 

Citations:

Mains, David R., and Karen Burton Mains. “The Faithless Ranger.” Tales of the Kingdom, David C. Cook Publishing Company, Elgin, Illinois, 1983, p. 32. 

“Revelation 21:1-5, John 16:33.” Holy Bible NKJV, Zondervan, 2014. 

Peterson, Andrew. Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making, B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2019.