The Selfish Giant: An Evangelist Finds A Child Guide

The Selfish Giant, by Oscar Wilde: The Evangelist Finds A Child Guide

By Tim McGuire

“…these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

  In our contemporary social milieu of argument, counter-argument and immovable belief one could be forgiven for thinking faith is the most important of the three virtues identified by Paul.  But Oscar Wilde’s story is a compelling retelling of the primacy of love for those wondering which of those three virtues to capitalize on in their evangelization efforts. An evangelist needs a story that gives hope that the icy hearts they will encounter can be melted. The story’s faith-affirming message of the impact of love in action make it my recommendation for the evangelist’s bookshelf.

  In the story, a giant has a garden full of life in which children play while he is gone but are chased out upon his return. It is his selfishness which drives him; the wall he builds around the garden isolates himself, thus cutting himself off from community. Wilde reinforces the destructive impact of selfishness by painting an ever-bleaker picture of life as perpetual winter takes hold of the garden and self-seclusion becomes indistinguishable from involuntary confinement for the giant.

  The giant’s longing never ceases as he continues to hope for the renewal of spring and its this longing that is answered with the appearance of a little boy, a Christ figure, in the far reaches of the garden. The boy beckons the giant to help him into a tree, a way of saying God is always watching and waiting for us, even, and especially, for those who have a built a wall to keep him out. The giant’s response to the child releases Christ’s life-giving grace. The giant repents of his selfishness, the ice of winter melts, the garden blooms and the giant’s participation in the life of the community is restored. What the child ultimately reveals about himself at the end is worth the wait.

  The story encourages the evangelist to be the hand that beckons the aloof, the voice that calls out to the isolated. For the past two years I have written to a prisoner, serving a life sentence plus ten years. He is bitter over a legal system he feels has treated him unjustly. Every letter I write incudes the suggestion that he think on God once a day; he has been stridently caustic in his replies. Of the last twelve months he has spent six in solitary confinement due to his assaultive behavior. However, his latest letter to me included this sentence: “I attended a church service here last week” followed by a smile emoji. I could feel the ice starting to melt.

  Wilde’s story presents the sobering implication that no matter how forcefully we may proclaim what we believe, such proclamations, absent the voice of love, maintain walls. Wilde said such stories were for the childlike. The Selfish Giant affirms the childlike hope that when we act with love, the walls that separate us from God, and each other, come down.