My family is doing a read-aloud through C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader right now. We just completed the chapter in which Lucy enters the library of the magician Coriakin and reads through a portion of his book of spells.
The book is wondrous, it is alive. As one reads new words appear, the illustrations begin to move, smells and sounds begin to pour-forth from the pages… the book, in other words, comes alive as it is read.
My children, especially the older three, thought this was amazing. So do I.
As we discussed it the next day they found themselves wishing they could have a magic book like that.
I told them all books are like that. What? They were confounded. What do you mean, are you pranking us? They inquired of me.
All books, for better or for worse, I explained, make the words come alive. Those thoughts, images, smells, sensations, all pour forth from the words I read and fill my mind and shape my thoughts. Even my body begins to sweat, get nervous, or salivate, because of the magic of those words.
Read the word “gummy sourpatch kids” and you begin to have a puckering reflex along the sides of your tongue. Magic! Your type III taste-receptor cells did not actually process any hydrogen ions from acidic chemicals, but your mouth felt the sourness. It was a lived experience you’ve had, reading those words “gummy sourpatch kids.”
This is why we must be careful what and how we read. Reading is a kind of magic.
And this is why, especially, we must be careful to read the Scriptures, they are the best words and the Deep Magic. If all books “come alive” we must make sure to fill ourselves with the Living Word of God that its life and ours might be one.
Tolle, lege!