The Snugness of Sharing

Brrr! It’s cold outside!*

I live in the South, and winters are usually rather mild here. However, as I write this blog, a half inch of snow blankets my yard; and the feels-like temperature is -8°.

This type of winter is not unusual for the characters in Jan Brett’s beloved children’s book The Mitten.

This Ukranian folktale adaptation tells the story of a diverse group of woodland animals who learn to get along with each other despite their differences. In fact, their willingness to share and snuggle helps the animals to adapt to their cold surroundings and to better endure their circumstances.

What a powerful lesson this story can share with us today!

As an English teacher, I love literature that teaches a lesson. Yes, this simple children’s story appears to be about a group of animals who find warmth inside a mitten lost in the snow. Digging a bit deeper thematically, we see the value of peaceful co-existence where conflict could have occurred.

A mole, a rabbit, a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, a fox, a bear, and a mouse, all with unique characteristics, choose peace over conflict in the midst of a snowy situation.

Casting aside their differences and disregarding spiny prickles and sharp talons and shiny teeth, they make room for each other and live in harmony.

Wouldn’t our world be a wonderful place if we could all live with each other in this manner? Our God has knitted for us a mitten, a whole wide world with room for everyone. He has given us the opportunity to find comfort in the snugness of sharing.

Colossians 3:13-15 tells us to get along with each other and love each other.

“Love is what holds [us] all together in perfect unity.”

I find the theme of this story especially meaningful in light of the current unrest in our world and specifically the war in Russia and the Ukraine.

My Sunday school class has recently been studying Matt Rawle’s The Faith of a Mockingbird based on Harper Lee’s classic novel. In his chapter on Tom Robinson, Rawl references the song, “All God’s Creatures Have a Place in the Choir.”

He states, “There is a beauty in a choir’s purposeful unity that goes beyond the composed harmony. Individual voices, each with their own gifts, are all pointed in the same direction, which offers us a model of how we should come together in unity as diverse children of God.”

Like the woodland creatures seeking warmth in Jan Brett’s The Mitten, there is room and a place for all of us if we snuggle in close. We will be better for it.

As I mentioned in my recent newsletter, I have planned to highlight some of my favorite children’s books and authors in my 2023 blog posts. Jan Brett’s words and beautiful illustrations provide a wonderful opportunity to snuggle with a child during this cold winter month. You might also want to check out Cozy and The Snowy Nap. Both of these books share Brett’s theme of harmonious living and the snugness of sharing.

Find more of Jan Brett’s treasured tales at https://www.janbrett.com/.

Have a wonderful new year, and always remember the house rules: “Quiet voices, gentle thumping, claws to yourself, no biting, and no pouncing.”—Jan Brett’s Cozy

“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”—L. M. Montgomery

“We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”—Maya Angelou

“Kindness is like snow. It beautifies everything it covers.”–Kahlil Gibran

“Don’t wrestle; just nestle.”—Corrie Ten Boom

Romans 12:16-21; Psalm 133:1; Galatians 3:28; Philippians 2:2

*As I post this blog, it’s 60 degrees and sunny in Tennessee!