We shall follow the breadcrumbs, and they will lead us home.
I invite you to recall the story of Hansel and Gretel. There are a few different versions of the same story, but basically here’s the plot.
Hansel and Gretel are the young children of a poor woodcutter and his wife, who are working well below the basic recommended minimum wage. When the cost of living rises so high, the woodcutter and his wife decide that they can no longer afford to feed their children, and so they hatch a cunning but rather grizzly plan.
They will lead the children deep into the woods and leave them there to fend for themselves, thus halving their grocery bill and making a massive saving on school fees.
What the wicked parents do not realise is that the children have overheard the plot, and Hansel quickly sneaks out of the bedroom window, goes outside and gathers some white pebbles. The next day, as the family walks deeper into the woods, Hansel leaves a trail of these white pebbles.
After their parents abandon them, the children wait until night falls and the moonlight reveals the white pebbles shining in the dark. The children safely follow the trail back home, much to the surprise and befuddlement of their parents. Hansel proudly tells his parents how they managed to find their way home with the white pebbles.
However, the recession continues, and this time the parents lock the children in their room the night before, leading them into the woods, thus ensuring that they have no opportunity to gather white stones.
Instead, the sinister parents give their children some crumbs of bread and once again lead them into the woods. Hansel cleverly drops the crumbs of bread as they go. Now there are a couple of different versions of the story. One of them has the local magpies consume all the breadcrumbs. Hansel and Gretel then wander aimlessly about, and they go on to encounter and conquer a wicked witch and have a wonderful adventure.
Another version goes like this. They wait until dark, when Gretel, who is unaware of Hansel’s cleverness with the breadcrumbs, wails…
“Oh, Hansel, whatever shall we do? How shall we make our way home?”
Hansel replies, “Never fear Gretel, my dear sister. We shall follow the bread crumbs that I have left along the path, and we shall find our way home”
Of course, it’s just a charming, delightful children’s story, completely unbelievable, but great fun.
But… doesn’t every life have its ogres and disappointing characters? Some of them are even human beings, whilst others are the monsters that we wrestle within the shadows of our own personal ‘woods.’
Doesn’t every life have times when we are cast out and we feel that we are left to fend for ourselves by those whom we had trusted and come to rely on?
Doesn’t every life have times of light and darkness, clear undulating plains and deep dark woods?
And aren’t there times in all our lives when we are so very lost and don’t know where to turn? We long to go home, but aren’t quite sure where Home, with a capital H, really is.
The reason why Hansel and Gretel is still in print and is being read today is not just because it's an exciting story, but because it resonates in all sorts of ways at our deepest inner being. Hansel and Gretel’s story is our story as well.
But the line that really struck me and which I hope might be helpful for you, is Hansel’s line of reassurance to fearful, distraught Gretel.
“We shall follow the trail of breadcrumbs and we will find our way home.”
In those times when we are lost, when we are hurt, when we don’t know the way home, when we have wandered far into the woods and night has fallen. Then we follow the bread crumbs home. The meagre, tiniest, wispy, crusts of bread nourish us not with the basic five groups and vitamins, but sustain us at those deepest levels and help us to conquer the beasts that threaten to eat us. We come to the altar once again to find the next piece of bread along the path, because we know at some level that what we really find, is actually Him. The one who is always leading us on, encouraging us to follow, to leave our darkness behind and to come back home to Him and with Him.
And yes, sometimes the bread crumbs are hard to find, sometimes we only glimpse Him or maybe just even sense him and then sometimes the crust of bread does not seem enough and leaves us hungry for more.
Part of the reason I really like Hansel and Gretel is that it does not pretend. It doesn’t dress up life in unicorn wrapping paper and with a pretty bow on top.
Its beauty lies in its ugliness and being unpretentious, not just its tidy happy ending and victorious conclusion. But it is also a story that offers us a way forward, a way out of the forest, a way back home. “We shall follow the breadcrumbs and they will lead us home.”