Editor’s note: Brian Gehr is the Director of Discipleship at FRCS and the head of the Bible Department.
As the father of two young children, I am used to the constant presence of repetition in my daily routines. Some songs are sung every day, some toys seem to never lose their novelty, and some books are requested to be read again seconds after I close the rear cover. Doing things again and again is an established norm for those who spend time with the youngest among us.
This fall, I noticed a similar repetition in short stories. As part of the Ethics Unit in Junior Seminar we examined some parables, fairy tales, and short stories with the aim of analyzing their moral lessons. Many of these texts include repetition as part of the story-telling, whether through the actions of the characters or the phrases that carried the plot along. Vigen Guroian, in his excellent book Tending the Heart of Virtue, remarks upon the fact that repetition often strikes older people differently than children. He noted that while fourth graders who read Pinocchio were drawn in by and related to the repeated efforts and missteps of the protagonist, his college students sometimes got bored by the familiar. Drawing on G.K. Chesterton, Guroian argues that repetition is frequently seen as dull or lifeless by adults. And perhaps this makes particular sense in our culture, in which we are constantly exposed to new content, whether through an endless stream of 10-20 second videos or infinite digital libraries of new shows and movies or an unavoidable flood of marketing that seeks to produce interest through any means necessary. In a world of novelty, repetition bears old news.
Chesterton, in his 1908 book Orthodoxy, argues against the idea that repetition is dull and lifeless. He is worth quoting at length:
A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.
For Chesterton, repetition is a sign of life. Children seem to naturally pursue the little things of joy not out of lack, but from a fullness of life. And it may be that this pureness of heart reflects something of the character of God. Chesterton continues:
But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore.1
Perhaps we should not be so quick to discount repetition when what is being brought to our attention again is something that is good.
May we be the kind of people who are not solely enamored by what is new, but rather those who are enraptured by that which is actually worthy of our time (Philippians 4:8-9). May we, as people of a Story, never grow weary in retelling the wonders of his love (Deuteronomy 6:20-23). And may we, as citizens of Heaven, become more like the little children who are held in such high esteem in the Kingdom of God (Matthew 18:1-5).
