Have you ever noticed how a truly satisfying answer requires a good question?

I’ve found this true in many situations. Whether it’s conducting research, unpacking opinion or argument, or struggling through times of fear or uncertainty. This is because, regardless of our age, fear can trigger a myriad of questions: Why is this happening? When will it end? How can I escape? Who can I trust?

As a children’s author, fear is often a common thread in the stories I write. It is a real and relevant part of the childhood experience that demands attention. It would be easy to construct simplistic characters and solve plots where the cause of fear disappears and everything is roses and bunny rabbits. But I know life isn’t like that. 

Sometimes the source of our fears linger beyond positive thinking and sticky-plaster antidotes. Ongoing illness, unresolved crisis, and impending danger – emotional, physical or spiritual – these things often come without an easy answer or even an end to hope for. This is when the questions we ask become so important. Because these types of fear cannot have a glib answer, even in a book for children.

When I was writing my second Madison picture book, I knew my main character would face some common, yet significant fears. Yet as I wrestled with how to respond to these fears and how to coach my child character through them, I realised the answer could not be mere avoidance. No, the question was bigger than that. It was the type of question Jesus must have been answering when he told his disciples (and us) not to fear (see John 14:1). A question something like this:

What reason do I have to face my fears – as real and terrifying as they might be – with confidence and courage, when there is no guarantee that what I fear will go away?

The answer, the only satisfying answer to this gut honest question, is the character of God.

When we take our focus off our fear and remember the goodness and majesty of our glorious heavenly Father; that is where our confidence is. That is where our courage and hope is found. And that is where I decided to place the answer to the questions of fear in my children’s picture book, Fearlessly Madison. Our courage and our confidence in the face of fear rests in the certainty of faith, that – as Madison learns to say over the course of her story – ‘God’s still here and God’s still good’, no matter what.

by Penny Reeve

You can listen to Penny reading Fearlessly Madison here:

Fearlessly Madison can be purchased here as an ebook.