Lessons from the Wingfeather World (Part 3): Finding Strength in Weakness

    

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*** This post contains spoilers ***

In The Monster in the Hollows, the third book in The Wingfeather Saga, the Igiby family arrives in the Green Hollows, the childhood home of their mother. The locals are wary of Tink (Kalmar) because he looks like a despised Grey Fang. Only because of Nia’s invocation of Turalay, an old law, do the locals allow Kalmar to stay in the town. If he harms anyone, the blame will fall on his mother.

Added to the challenges of adapting to village life are monstrous creatures called the cloven, which are said to roam free in the wild as the terror of the Hollowsfolk. One such creature, a bear, rambles near the Igiby’s house. Janner, Kalmar, and Leeli all receive eerie visions about someone pursuing them, which turns out to be the cloven bear.

Like Father, Like Son

Unbeknownst to the children, Gnag had captured their father after the defeat of Anniera and attempted to meld him into a bear. Just like Kalmar, their father (Esben) was turned into a despised monster. Even though they had assumed he was dead, he had been searching for them for years. The eerie visions they received of someone finding them and holding them fast were from Esben, not Gnag. In love, he had pursued them.

Only Kalmar sympathized with the monstrous bear. No one else understood what it was like to be trapped in the body of a Fang. Although it was dangerous, Kalmar hunted local chickens and goats to take them to the bear, who was wounded. As Janner noted, “Kalmar was the only person in all of the Hollows who would show mercy to a cloven, because only he knew how a cloven felt: hungry, outcast, and alone” (Peterson 263).

At the end of the book, the great bear saves Nia and the children. However, he is shot and mortally wounded. Janner, Kalmar, and Leeli finally get to meet their father, but only for a short time before he dies. In life, he had loved and pursued them, but his final act demonstrated his heart for his family. Esben quotes the ancient and beautiful song, “My Love Has Gone Across the Sea,” when he tells his children, “In death, my love, I loved you best” (Peterson 323).

Strength in Weakness

In the bittersweet moment before he dies, Esben addresses Kalmar, the future King of Anniera. The bear-king looks at his young wolf-turned son and knows that he has also suffered in his melded state. Kalmar laments his weakness, saying he was not strong enough to resist the song of the ancient stones. Esben’s reply is full of fatherly compassion and biblical truth:

“But it’s weakness that the Maker turns to strength. Your fur is why you alone loved a dying cloven. You alone in all the world knew my need and ministered to my wounds” (Peterson 322).

Since Kalmar has experienced being a Fang, he can sympathize better with others who are different and hurting, as he did with his cloven father. Esben even says, “You’re more fit to be the king than I ever was” (Peterson 322). Kalmar’s lack of strength to resist the melding had become an area of strength because he had developed compassion and humility. His concern for others who had been forcibly transformed into Fangs would serve him well for the events in the last book. The Maker would use Kalmar’s weakness to make him into a benevolent king.

Scripture also talks about how God uses our weaknesses for His glory. The Apostle Paul prayed that the Lord would remove a painful “thorn” in his flesh. Each time he asked, the Lord “said to me ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NIV). Jesus’ strength was exalted in Paul’s weakness. Likewise, the Lord uses our weakness for His glory.   

Helping Others Because of Personal Trials

            Kalmar was able to help his wounded father because he could relate to being misunderstood as a “monster.” Likewise, we can help others because of personal struggles and trials we endure. God can use our weaknesses to exalt Himself and demonstrate His strength. In the moments we experience hardship and suffering, we can know that God will use those bad times for His good. Like Paul, we can say “I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10, NIV).

            In my life, I have experienced the pain and grief of losing my dog and my mother in the same year. They died when I was nineteen years old. Never in my life have I ever experienced such sorrow and pain. Only because of Jesus was I able to make it through the rest of that year. Without Him, I do not know what I would have done.

            Grief is a dark time, but Jesus can use it for His good. He helped me grow in Him and learn to depend on Him alone. Furthermore, I can relate better to others who have lost loved ones. People who have never experienced death do not yet know the overwhelming sense of loss and sorrow a person feels when a loved one dies. I have seen people nod and recite words, assuring the bereaved person that their loved one is with God and that they will see them again. These people mean well, but they forget and fail to understand that grief is not something you can wave away. Correct theology is vital, but in times of grief, people often need someone who will sit and listen, or cry with them. Jesus wept when His friend, Lazarus, died (John 11:35). Also, Scripture tells us to mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15).  

Death is not natural. We were never supposed to die, but sin brought death into the world, and we suffer its all-encompassing consequences (Genesis 2:17; Romans 5:12). Hearts are broken, children lose parents, people lose spouses, individuals lose their friends, and their life can never be the same again. Those who have experienced the pain of seeing a loved one die know that it is not something you can wipe away with nice words. Grieving individuals need people who understand, just as Esben needed his cloven son who could understand his suffering.             

            Regardless of the pain we have experienced, God can use our hardships for His good. With His help, we can find strength in weakness.        

Works Cited

Peterson, Andrew. The Wingfeather Saga: The Monster in the Hollows. WaterBrook, 2011.

The Bible. New International Version. Zondervan, 2011. Bible Hub.