Mole and Rat are most well known for their interactions with the capricious Mr. Toad. His automobile-related hijinks keep his rodent friends busy, and beset them with stresses and obligations of no fault of their own. Indeed, Mr. Toad is perhaps the most entertaining character in Kenneth Grahame’s  The Wind in the Willows. However, there is much more in this century-old children’s novel. There are colorful characterizations of anthropomorphic animals which impeccably describe humanity. There are lessons of friendship that exalt loyalty and candor. And there are, through the tiny eyes of the smallest creatures of the river and wood, beautiful descriptions of the world around us.

In an adventure that doesn’t involve the famous Mr. Toad, Mole and Rat volunteered to help look for a missing otter child. As they steer their crude vessel downstream, they are struck with the exquisite allure of the river.

The water’s own noises, too, were more apparent than by day, its gurglings and ‘cloops’ more unexpected and near at hand; and constantly they started at what seemed a sudden clear call from an actual articulate voice. The line of the horizon was clear and hard against the sky, and in one particular quarter it showed black against a silvery climbing phosphorescence that grew and grew. At last, over the rim of the waiting earth the moon lifted with slow majesty till it swung clear of the horizon and rode off, free of moorings; and once more they began to see surfaces- meadows wide-spread, and quiet gardens, and the river itself from bank to bank, all softly disclosed, all washed clean of mystery and terror, all radiant again as by day, but with a difference that was tremendous. Their old haunts greeted them again in other raiment, as if they had slipped away and put on this pure new apparel and come quietly back, smiling as they shyly waited to see if they would be recognized again under it.

Then Rat is struck by a by an enchanting sound, rendering him awestruck and unresponsive, impelling them forward and down the river.

Rapt, transported, trembling, he was possessed in all his senses by this new divine thing that caught up his helpless soul and swung and dandled it, a powerless but happy infant in a strong sustaining grasp.

Nature itself does not call out to Rat. Nor does it call out to you or to me. As is revealed, the Piper is supernatural. He rescues the child otter. He beckons Rat and Mole. He  plays the music that captivates those who hear and illuminates their surroundings such that their senses perceive things in their most brilliant  elegance.

Of course, the Piper is a literary character. As are Rat, Mole, and Mr. Toad. The Wind in the Willows is fiction. But the greatest fiction, like Rat’s “song-dream” helps us articulate that which we often only perceive.

The quotation above which describes a river at night is one such example. The pen of Grahame succinctly captures something that our eyes and hearts behold but our cameras can’t ever seem to do justice. Adjectives and cadence come together to describe the dramatic; albeit only scenery.

More important is the song of the Piper. It intrudes upon Rat’s already remarkable experience. It inserts itself into his ears and  mind and heart such that his experience becomes completely different than that of Mole. They are both on the same river. They both see the same moonlight. They both hear the same winds. Yet the song that comes to Rat floods his emotions and transforms his reality. It comes from an alien presence. In an already unbelievable story about talking  otters and car-driving toads, a second-level miracle occurs.

The transcendent reveals himself imminently. When it happens, Rat is changed. It changes his world. It changes his words and his actions and his emotions.

Once more: this is a story. Stories, however, give us opportunity to reflect on the Story. Our story. Time on rivers is often spoken of in supernatural terms, in transcendent terms. Yet  we can’t make the mistake that the river itself is transcendent. The water is not supernatural. These elements and our experience in and with them is and can be radically transformed by revelation. Then the meaning makes sense. Then, the joy has language and the worship has an object. Then,  we can know clearly what Rat only describes as ” the real, the unmistakable thing, simple- passionate- perfect…”

O Yahweh, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who displays Your splendor above the heavens!

From the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have established;

What is man that You remember him,
And the son of man that You care for him?

Yet You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!

You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,

All sheep and oxen,
And also the animals of the field,

The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

O Yahweh, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8