Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

     "And here Alice began to get rather sleepy and began saying to herself in a dreamy sort of way, "Do cats eat bats? Do get bats?" and sometimes "Do bats eat cats?" for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question it didn't matter which way she put it."

      I found it very interesting how LC (Lewis Carroll) says that when you don't know the answer it doesn't matter how you ask the question. I on the other hand would venture to say that the phrasing of questions is of utmost importance if you're ever hoping to have it answered. When we have a question about God, we can't just give up on asking it because we can't figure out how to say it! On the contrary, I do find that a lot of times when I pray I don't know how to phrase what I'm asking for but as long as I know what I mean that is what God will hear.

"For,  you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible."

      I love this line because I feel like that's how people must feel when they first become Christians. For me it was super gradual so I can't say that for sure but I do know that when I started getting really close to God and waking up super early I certainly felt that way. Like, practically nothing was actually impossible if God gives you the knowledge and tools to make it happen.

    "First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any further: she felt a little nervous about this; "for it might end, you know", said Alice to herself, "in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?" And  she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle looks like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing."

       And now we've reached  the point where things are truly impossible, both in wonderland and our own world. If the flame of a candle is blown out, the flame of the candle is gone forever. Even if you light it again, it's a different flame. This, of course, has a vast amount of metaphoric match ups but the most obvious, in my opinion, is life and death.

       "She generally gave herself very good advice (though she very seldom followed it)"

        I often feel this way all the time when God is clearly telling me to do one thing and then I think about it for ever so long as though it is unclear when in reality only my feeble arguments against God's will are "muddying" it. Then I advise myself in the best possible way and proceed to do the wrong thing. Honestly I suppose everyone does this and it is most annoying (I do the things I hate)! But more annoying to God than anyone else!

        "She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself "Which way? Which way?", holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was growing; and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size. To be sure, this is what generally happens when one eats cake; but Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way."

        I know exactly how Alice feels on this one. Often, I go into my Bible Study with the mindset that I will have a great revelation and come out of it feeling completely revived and refreshed. When that is my mindset it never happens because I'm so focused on me rather than God and I'm rather disappointed. The wonder of the joyous feelings the Word and time with God brings is that it comes only when you haven't set expectations for God to meet. That way He can create a wonderful episode of life that you didn't expect (although you didn't doubt either) because you were to focused on God to over think the event itself. 

        When Alice meets with the mouse and birds she continues to mention her cat Dinah, thinking only of what she'd like to say rather than being sensitive to what they'd like to hear. As a result, the all leave. This happens in real life too. When we are insensitive and selfish, we are left worse than before.

       "Alice said nothing: she had never been so much contradict in all her life before, and she felt that she was losing her temper"

        Generally speaking the result of continuously contradicting someone is a struggle with patience inside that person and quite a dislike from them as well. 

       "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

       "The depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

       "I don't much care where----" said Alice.

       "The it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

       "----so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation."

       "Oh, you're sure to do that", said the cat, "if you only walk long enough." 

       This conversation between Alice and the Cheshire Cat cracks me up because it does seem so silly for Alice to ask where to go when the only place she wants to go is "somewhere" but, if fact, we do it all the time. We ask God to direct us without giving a thought to where we might like to go and, honestly, it seems to me that that would be a pretty God hint at what He might like us to do. 

So that's a bit of my thoughts on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and I will follow up soon with a post on her sister.