Neverland Isn’t What it’s Cracked Up to Be

As I observe my granddaughter Madelyn and play with her, I come across many different types of books designed to open up a universe of imagination and discovery. We are reading a little Dr. Seuss, The Little Engine That Could, and Pepe Pig, her favorite. When I contemplate all the various stories you are exposed to as a child, from Winnie the Poo to Robin Hood, I always think of Peter Pan.

I first learned of Peter Pan in the Disney movie and later from Mary Martin’s musical rendition. Peter Pan was magical for me - children being lifted from their homes, flying into the sky on the way to a place called Neverland. There were pirates, crocodiles, and unique hideouts as well as lots of boys and girls who follow Peter Pan and Tinker Bell and live by the code “I never want to grow up”. 

This thought—I never want to grow up—appealed to me. At a young age I must have been fearful of becoming an adult, watching my parents, as all children do, and seeing that life doesn’t get easier. It becomes harder and the fun factor seems to disappear or, at times, become inaccessible. I wasn’t far off in my thinking. In fact, I was right.

I would always feel heartbroken at the end of Peter Pan because of the painful awareness that Wendy and the boys couldn’t remain in Neverland and had to return home, to reality, and grow up.

The popular writer Scott Peck, who wrote The Road Less Traveled, begins his book with three words:

“Life is difficult.”

It’s not a statement I willingly accepted, but it more than rings true as I continue to live my life.

There are a lot of self-help books that talk about never growing up, staying young at heart, age is only a number—sort of echoing the death-denying culture we live in. Actually, what I have realized is that the older I get, the more I appreciate life and the more alive I have become. I am better at so many things, whether it’s being a pastor or being a husband or being a friend. I am experiencing the better versions of myself right now. One reason for that is that I have been willing to change in order to discover my gifts. 

One of the ways I have been able to face the fact that I cannot live in Neverland and I have to grow up is that my faith has informed me that I must always move forward and, miraculously enough, it gives me tools to interpret my world.

My faith has introduced me to the dark side of life: sin, death, pain and grief. It has also informed me that my life is a gift, and that gift must be lived out in its fullness. Words like confession, stewardship, forgiveness, redemption come to mind. It has enabled me to participate more deeply in the life I have been given.

When I think about all the options, the one I have chosen seems to be for me “the only game in town”.  I cannot imagine anything else for me.

Martin Luther once said, “Everyone has to do their own believing”, and the Christian life is not something you can just do on the weekends. It is something that must be part of the interior of your life. Neverland seems far away now, and I take joy in the Christian narrative that tells me that death doesn’t have the final word, that love is stronger than hate.

I once took a course entitled “Christianity and Fairytales” taught by the late theologian Robert McAfee Brown. As I look over the fairytales I read to Madelyn or the ones by the Grimm Brothers, you can make the case that Christianity is like a fairytale. I entitled one of my Easter sermons, “It’s too good to be true”. Yes, the story of Easter is, to the ears of all of us, almost too good to be true.

For young ears Neverland is almost too much fun and too good to ever be true. When I think of being stuck in Neverland now, I think how stunted my life would be. I would not be learning, growing, or be as creative (as I think I am). I don’t buy into Neverland but into Foreverland instead. What I mean is that I accept the Christian proposal that life is stronger than death and that in the resurrection of our Lord we will be raised with him. In the words of the hymn “Borning Cry”, “I was there to hear your borning cry, I’ll be there when you are old. I’ll be there as I have always been, with just one more surprise”.