When I was a little girl, I loved curling up next to my mom as she would read to me and my brother from our world history curriculum. But this was no regular world history curriculum full of dry facts, but rather one told like a story, and often would include many of the legends and myths that different cultures had throughout their history.

The legends spoke to me in a way many other things had not. Odysseus outwitting the cyclops, Beowulf slaying Grendel, the rabbit shooting the sun, and many others stuck in my mind, and I would stare countless times at the pictures of Odysseus vs. the Cyclops and Beowulf bear-gripping Grendel’s arm. Yet as much as I loved them, I feared them. After all, wasn’t it sinful to like myths? What if I accidentally came to believe them to be true? So I would push aside my interest in myths and legends, writing it off as something I shouldn’t think much upon. 

As I grew older, my love for legends grew, though in a different form. Thor and Loki’s storyline in Marvel fascinated me as a young preteen, and as a high schooler I read parts of the Iliad and the entirety of Beowulf. 

When I read the Iliad, my old fear of loving mythology reared its ugly head and I begged my mom to let me just read parts of it, which she agreed to. After all, weren’t legends written by pagans evil and should be avoided?

But then I read Beowulf. Oh, Beowulf! The saga had me enthralled in its sheer epicness, and not only that, but the elements of Christianity were strong. Perhaps this was because it was written down by a monk, but for once I didn’t feel guilty for reading an actual legend, and instead felt like I could love it. 

Inch by inch, I grew more comfortable with myths and legends. And then this year, I read a fictional book based off of Korean mythology called The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh. And I absolutely loved it, without guilt.

And what changed? Well, I could see the Lord’s love in it, crazily enough.

Now, I know you might be thinking “But that’s a secular fantasy book about Korean mythology! How could you see the Lord so clearly in something like that?” 

Well, it’s because while reading it, I couldn’t help but thank the Lord a couple of times while reading that the true afterlife is much, much better than what is seen in myths and that He is so much more loving and good than those gods and goddesses in the story. But even that wasn’t the main thing. It was, shockingly enough, the love of the Sea God and Mina, the main character. 

I don’t know if I can explain it to you, but the love between the two somehow reminded me of the love between Christ and the church, and I ended up growing closer to God after reading the book because I was so happy to have a relationship with Him that’s so much better than what any fictional or legendary characters could ever have.

And that’s what I think is what’s important and beautiful about myths. Hidden within them, sometimes deep and secret, is the truth of the Lord. You just have to be solid in your faith and know to look for it.