a lesson from a children's book

From The Tale of Despereaux (If you haven't read the book yet, you might not want to read this post)

And then the princess took a deep breath and put a hand on her heart.

I think, reader, that she was feeling the same thing that Despereaux had felt when he was faced with his father begging him for forgiveness. That is, Pea was aware suddenly of how fragile her heart was, how much darkness was inside it, fighting, always, with the light. She did not like the rat. She would never like the rat, but she knew what she must do to save her own heart. 

 Occasionally a passage in a children's story will strike me as meaningful and applicable beyond the children to whom the story is read. This is one such passage. The Tale of Despereaux is a beautiful story of a mouse finding courage in his circumstances and of light encountering darkness and changing different characters in the process. People are not naturally good. There is a bent aspect to our nature that fights against attempts to do the right thing, a darkness that wants to keep the light far away. Yet there come pivotal moments when we can choose to follow the light, God's light, and overcome this darkness. As we live daily, making one choice at a time, we can learn to protect our fragile hearts.