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Message from Pastor Peter Marty

flat stanley

Flat Stanley

By Pastor Peter Marty

Jeff Brown must have grown up in an earthquake zone, fearful that his house would topple in on him some day. That is pure guess on my part, but not entirely unthinkable. Mr. Brown is the genius behind the 1960’s children’s book series that features Stanley Lambchop as the main character.

Stanley has a traumatic experience one night when the heavy bulletin board on the wall above his bed falls on top of him. He survives the crushing blow but is forever flattened. This four foot tall, one foot wide, and one half inch thick boy makes the best of his altered state.

Though ridiculed by some, Flat Stanley enjoys an exciting childhood. He slides into a room through the crack beneath a closed door. He catches some serial art museum thieves one night by posing as a picture in the gallery, mounted with four small nails inside an elegant frame. He slips through the bars of a sidewalk grate to help his mother fetch her ring. When the airplane and train expenses to vacation in California prove too much for the family, Stanley’s parents stick him in a large envelope and mail him to his friends.

All of this attention is hard on Stanley’s younger brother Arthur. Even though Stanley serves as the perfect kite for Arthur one day in the park, Arthur holds some jealousy for his brother’s fame. It’s serious envy, so much so that Arthur even piles a set of encyclopedias on top of himself one evening, hoping to flatten his own body. The storyline of Flat Stanley is sheer delight. Author Jeff Brown has inspired smiles for the ages.

I think of Flat Stanley on many a Sunday. Thatís because the red hymnal I use in worship is chocked full of pictures and photos that kids hand to me. There they reside, flattened between O God Our Help in Ages Past and Beautiful Savior. I have sketches of the sanctuary, close-ups of my face, and family portraits drawn by these budding artists. A month ago, a little guy coming through the receiving line handed me three pencil drawings from his doodle pad. The first is of a church with a tower on top. The second is of a speeding car. The third is of a police officer writing a ticket. Either his family was running late for church that day, or someone in that car just couldn’t wait to hear about this Jesus guy.

I guard my hymnal closely. Perish the thought that all of my little Flat Stanley friends would wind up in an anonymous pew rack, unattended for weeks. A piece of blue electrical tape on the hymnal binding is my tip-off for an usher to peek inside and seek out the rightful owner.

There is one more detail about the original Flat Stanley, if you don’t know his whole story. One night, tired over his forever flattened state, Stanley begins to cry. In empathy, his brother Arthur hits on an idea. Arthur fetches an old bicycle pump, rigs it up to Stanley’s mouth, and begins to pump air into his brother. At first, just the cheeks fill up. Eventually Stanley’s whole body re-inflates. The household celebrates.

I don’t know if you know the biblical story of Easter evening. Most of us don’t read beyond the empty tomb part that gloriously fills the morning worship. But on that first Easter evening, the risen Christ appeared to his disciples. They were in something of a lock-down mode, living in fear for what might be next for them. That’s when Jesus Christ breathed on them. That’s what he did. He opened his mouth and re-inflated their otherwise tame, scared, and flat lives with resurrection breath. They were never the same again.

As for my flattened friends inside my hymnal, every time I look at them I think of the joy they bring our congregation. I couldn’t fit all of them between my pages if they were round instead of flat. But I know deep in my heart that the Spirit of the Lord keeps filling them up. Constantly. Every day. It is the breath of new life that animates their faces, and through their happiness, ours as well.

Pastor Peter Marty,

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