Riddles and Parables

On Saturday we saw an excellent outdoor production of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’…

At the Mad Hatter’s tea party the Hatter asks Alice: ‘Why is a raven like a writing desk?’ A bonkers conversation eventually concludes:

Hatter: Have you guessed the riddle yet?

Alice: No I give up . What’s the answer?

Hatter: I haven’t the slightest idea.

Alice: I think you might do something better with the time that waste it asking riddles that have no answers.  

Some riddles make us think… What word begins with E and ends with E, but only has one letter?

…Envelope.

Some make us smile… If you drop a yellow hat in the Red Sea, what does it become?

…Wet.

Some are just silly… If two snakes marry, what will their towels say?

…Hiss and Hers.

This morning I was reading some of Jesus’ parables. Bible teacher Lawrence Richards writes:

‘The word translated ‘parable’ is rooted in the Old Testament concept of a ‘riddle’. There the riddle or parable may be a word play: a brief saying, a vivid image, a longer story. Each kind of ‘riddle’ is intended both to display and to some extent hide information. In each, the hearer is expected to puzzle out the speaker’s meaning.’

One of Jesus’ riddle/parables is: ‘Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’

I reckon Bob Dylan was trying to puzzle out Jesus’ meaning when he wrote ‘Forever Young’:

May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung…

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift

May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And may you stay Forever young

I’m musing on this youthful ambition, energy, enthusiasm, stability, joy… and – like Alice – determination to work out parables/riddles…

…sung and lived by The Young@Heart Choir in their moving ‘Forever Young’ presentation: