# 35 “Little House” books

Husband and Daughter # 4 arrived in Toronto Thursday evening. The girls immediately put on the “Little House” outfits Auntie Sarah had made for them (at their request) and we all walked down to Tim Horton’s for late night coffee (adults) and donuts (kids).

Now coffee and donuts at the edge of Chinatown at nine o’clock at night is not a very “Little House” activity. But watching them in their little aprons and bonnets I realized just how those books have enriched us.

Their father reads them a couple of chapters every night – just as his father read every night. Right now they are reading “By the Shores of Silver Lake” and I remember what is coming next… “The Long Winter.”

We had our own long winters in those early days in Japan. The “Little House” books were not written as Christian books and yet, when I think of the things we learned from them, I think of that word in Paul’s letter to the church at Rome:

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. (Rom 15:4)

Because these books did teach us endurance, and give us encouragement and hope. Treasures...