Flat Stanley - Jeff Brown & Rob Biddulph

Although there is now a veritable cornucopia of Flat Stanley books, the first book is definitely where a reader should start in order to find out the origin of how Stanley Lambchop becomes the ‘Flat Stanley’ of the title (regardless of which book they choose to read next!).

For those who have never come across the book, here’s a brief rundown…

Stanley Lambchop lives with his younger brother Arthur and parents. One night, while asleep in his bed, a large noticeboard falls from the wall and flattens him. He wakes four feet tall, one foot wide and half an inch thick, but in all other ways perfectly fine. He soon discovers that there are advantages to his flatness – he can slide under doors, he can be posted in the mail to other people (much cheaper than a plane ticket!) and can even be used as a kite in the park.

Stanley and his family embrace his situation and find ways that his new flatness can be a good thing, and herein we realise the fundamental human truth that this story is teaching its readers – with a right perspective and resilience we can handle different situations.

From the earliest age children are going to come up against obstacles, struggles and disappointments. I wouldn’t imagine that any of them are going become half an inch thick (!) but they are likely to have illnesses (some unfortunately more serious ones), problems at school, sadnesses at home, annoyances and so on. In all these situations there is a choice to be made and for even the littlest humans that can mean the choice between a tantrum or a next step. As we grow those choices aren’t necessarily easier, we just become more aware of what the ‘socially correct’ response is! 

Stanley Lambchop, along with the enduring support of his family, looks for the new perspective in his difficulty and finds that his struggle gives him opportunities he wouldn’t otherwise have had. 

The resilience and perseverance that Flat Stanley shows us is from a human perspective… but from God’s perspective this becomes something more. Not that sufferings are only to be endured, but that, because we have peace with God through Jesus, we can even rejoice in suffering! When Paul wrote to the Romans, he needed them to know that God’s picture is bigger, wider and more wonderful that what we can see. 

“Through him [Jesus] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Romans 5 v 2 – 5

The world will tell people that perseverance builds character, but it will rarely encourage them to rejoice in their sufferings. How much of a better story do we have that we not only build endurance and character, but HOPE! And hope in what? Not a wishy-washy ‘I wish…’ kind of hope, but a ‘This IS going to happen/IS ALREADY happening…’ kind of hope. A ‘I am loved by the incredible creator of the universe, who has rescued His people – including me.’ kind of hope. 

It is something that we can encourage our children in – to look for the way in which we can persevere, that this will build our character, that maybe one day we can encourage someone else because of what we have been through… but more than all of this, that the Lord meets us IN our suffering with his love. He has already given us the promise of sharing in glory, with that as our ultimate hope we CAN have joy in all circumstances.