A Trip to the Swiss Alps

My introduction to Heidi happened on the wooden console television set in our living room when I was a little girl. Several times a year, one of Nashville’s four television stations played Shirley Temple movies early Sunday morning. I liked to watch them before Sunday School. One of the ones I saw was Heidi.

By then Shirley Temple was a mother with children of her own, but the movies she made as a child star were still popular. Evidently my mama liked her because for several years she rolled my hair onto skinny rubber rollers every Saturday night and combed them into ringlets on Sunday morning.

I’m not sure I was even aware that there was a book entitled Heidi. It is a treasure for just about any age. One of our daughters is currently reading it to her three- and five-year-olds and they love it; I first read it as an adult and I loved it then.

Fourth grade students at the Oneida School Schenectady, New York. present a play they have written from the book Heidi. The audience is composed of neighbor children and their parents; admission is five cents. The proceeds go to the American Red Cross, 1943. Courtesy Library of Congress. — *Fourth grade students at the Oneida School in Schenectady, New York, present a play they have written from the book* Heidi. The audience is composed of neighbor children and their parents; admission is five cents. The proceeds go to the American Red Cross, 1943. Courtesy Library of Congress.

Just like no one knows Laura Ingalls Wilder unless they’ve read her books, no one knows the beauty and depth of the story of Heidi unless they’ve read the 1880 unabridged original by Johanna Spyri. Spring is the perfect time to take your children to the Swiss Alps with Heidi. Let them climb the mountains with Heidi and Peter the goatherd as they lead the goats to just the right herbs that God provides for the nutritional needs of the goats in the springtime and just the right nutrients to help the people who drink their milk.

*Switzerland. Courtesy Library of Congress*

When the grass disappears, the new growth is seen,
And the herbs of the mountains are gathered in . . .
Psalm 27:25

Give your children the opportunity to watch the grandmother teach Heidi to read using stories from a beautifully-illustrated Bible story book. Take them to visit the blind widow who teaches Heidi more about her heavenly Father. Watch with your children as they see Heidi’s grandfather learn that God loves even the worst of sinners and watch as he learns that he can repent.

The Lord is not slow about His promise,
as some count slowness,
but is patient toward you,
not wishing for any to perish
but for all to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9

A Trip to the Swiss Alps

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