PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

May 22, 2022

THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY (Part III)

A recurring theme in Matt Haitt’s The Midnight Library (Viking) is the game of chess.  The relationship between Nora Reese and Mrs. Elm was formed while playing chess in the school library.  The book ends with Nora seeking out Mrs. Elm for conversation and a game of chess.

Mrs. Elm compares the game of chess to the game of life.  “Look at how ordered and safe and peaceful it (chessboard) looks now, before a game starts.  It’s a beautiful thing.  But it is boring.  It is dead.  And yet the moment you make a move on that board, things change.  Things begin to get more chaotic.  And that chaos builds with every single move you make.”

                “At the beginning of a game, there are no variations.  There is only one way to set up a board.  There are nine million variations after the first six moves.  And after eight moves there are two hundred and eighty-eight billion different positions.  And those possibilities keep growing.  There are more possible ways to play a game of chess than the amount of atoms in the observable universe.  So it gets very messy.  And there is no right way to play; there are many ways.  In chess, as in life, possibility is the basis of everything.  Every hope, every dream, every regret, every moment of living.” (The Midnight Library, p. 195)  In The Midnight Library Matt Haitt explores just a few of the possibilities that Nora’s life might have taken if she had made just one different choice.

One of the points Mrs. Elm makes is that a game of chess is never over until it is over.  There is still a chance as long as there is just one pawn on the board.  It is possible in a game of chess to be considerably behind and still win the game by a mistake on the part of the opponent or by a brilliant tactical move.  In the 14^th chapter of Exodus the Hebrew people are in a desperate situation.  The Red Sea is in front of them and the Egyptians are behind them.  There would seem to be no options left except one, the intervention of the Lord.  He comes to their rescue and parts the waters of the Red Sea so the people can safely pass through.  Then He has the waters return when the Egyptians are crossing.

One of the reasons there is always hope when one just has a pawn is the possibility of a lowly pawn becoming a queen.  Mrs. Elm tells Norma “And even if you were a pawn – maybe we all are – then you should remember that a pawn is the most magical piece of all.  It might look small and ordinary but it isn’t.  Because a pawn is never just a pawn.  A pawn is a queen-in-waiting.” (The Midnight Library, p. 188)

In Matthew Jesus tells two parables about the importance of small things and how they can have large impacts. “’The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’  He told them another parable ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’” (Mat. 13:31b-33)

Chess like life has an infinite number of possibilities depending upon the choices one makes.  Just like a pawn, the least of the chess pieces has the possibility of becoming a knight, a bishop, a rook or even a queen, Nora discovered that she had the potential to become many things.  Finally, just as there is in a game of chess, if at least one pawn remains on the board, in the game of life there is always hope. The Lord still does miracles.

A scriptural index of previous articles can be found at musingsfromtheheartland.com.