The Brothers Grimm, Aesop, and John?

I just realized today that the Bible is full of fairy tales…no, the atheists have not finally won me over, rather I started reading Ruth today, I forget how much I love that story, and Esther, and so many more.  Nearly every tale has something mysterious and magical and wonderful about it and then there is the entire epic theme of the fall and redemption of man, of the God made flesh who dwelt among us.  No yarn of George MacDonald can compare to the visions of John or Ezekiel.  No strange world created by a mortal mind can compete with our own that God called forth from the void.  What tale of human striving can compete with the story of God?  I have recently discovered G. K. Chesterton's poetry, a thing I thought never to do as I can sometimes barely discern the meaning in his prose and I am no student of poetry, but there is something wonderful and weird in his ravings and I find myself swept along with it into a new world of imagination and childish wonder.

THE HOUSE OF CHRISTMAS

G. K. Chesterton

There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
Where the yule tale was begun.

A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that
But our hearts we lost—how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.

This world is wild as an old wives' tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless

And all men are at home. 

A classic education, what an excellent way to start the new year!  Thirsty for more?  You can find 'Poems' by G. K. Chesterton at Project Gutenberg or you can find his muse and source material in the Bible.