some stories we tell for fun we don't think too hard just a whisper of a laugh or a hint of sadness some stories we tell because they are to be studied unwrapped, grappled and grasped these stories help us become more human once upon a time in the forest children of cruel sad parents leaving breadcrumbs, wandered lost until they arrived at the gingerbread house. home of the evil witch who wanted to eat them the witch was burned in her own oven the children lived happily ever after the end once upon a time in the desert children of the living god eating manna, wandering led, after being long lost, to the walled city of jericho where shout and trumpet blast brought down the walls the triumphant wanderers entered the city devoting it entirely to the lord here the word devoting means every living inhabitant of the city was stabbed with a sword until they were dead devoting means that small children, whose only sin was being born in the path of someone else's destiny lay dead in their own blood victims of the faithful devotions of god's chosen people i beg the god named love that i might wrestle with text and struggle to learn a deep and meaningful lesson from the story of the candy house and the clever children