"There is a kind of story that all people crave. It doesn't matter if they are religious or secular, there is one type of story that everyone wants to hear. It is a story with a supernatural world where miracles can happen, where you can cheat death and come back to life again. It is a story that show us a love that is eternal, where good triumphs over evil, where the good guy wins in the end after much tribulation, where victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat, and where the victors live happily ever after. It is a story of a sacrificial hero that brings life out of certain death.
Modern critics hate these kinds of stories because they see them as just fairy tales. They say that life isn't really like that so we shouldn't be telling these kinds of stories. But Tolkien points out, on the contrary, that these stories connect to our deepest human longings, to those things that we all hope and dream and wish for.
The impression we are given by our culture is that there is no supernatural world, that evil will triumph over good, that death is the end, and that love is not eternal. But on a gut level, most people know that this is not right. That's not how it's supposed to be.
That is why, even though fairy tales aren't true, most people feel that they are true. Because they point to an underlying reality that is almost more true than the way life is being lived in this world.
And the greatest fairy tale story of them all? The story of Jesus. This one has it all - a supernatural world, a love that conquers all, good triumphing over evil, escape from death, heroic self sacrifice - it's got everything people hope to find in a good story.
But there is one difference. This is the one grand fairy tale story that is actually true. It really happened. It is not merely another story pointing to the underlying reality. The story of Jesus is the reality to which all the other stories point."
- Tim Keller
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