He opened the book to the strange new page. The quaint bookmark gives an amusing relief to the questions he has before reading. What mystery will he discover today? Will there be any new character introduced? Are the protagonists truly noble or innocent? How will the author weave together previous chapters? How does this current section of the story play into the greater climax of the book?

He pushes aside these questions and carefully reads on. What majesty in composition! These themes and motifs strike to the heart. Suddenly, the antagonist seems more like a mirror, and sympathy for that character begins to grow. But wait, three lines down there no longer seems to be a protagonist or an antagonist. Who is good?

Interesting.

He wonders to himself, “have people felt this way to hearing the story for the past three millennia, or am I reading this all wrong?”

And he pushes on, for he begins to see that there was a greater protagonist all along. A hero who has appeared since page one, but has had three or four different names over the past pages.

Is this book history? Is it a metaphor? Are there any other books like this?

He shakes his head in disbelief over just how much this book causes him to question every aspect of life. Chuckling, he thinks back to the different characters that have been either a mirror or a foil to his own soul. Every page brings a new discovery. Every page raises even more questions. He has to keep reading.

No one would ever guess that this is his eighth time reading through this book, and that he has spent nearly twelve years carefully studying the history, the structure, the message, art, and the influence of this book. Shouldn’t he have more figured out?

As the pages continue to turn, it becomes clear, he does not mind having these questions. In fact, these questions are what keep him coming back to this book. Not only that, but these questions cause him to continually converse with the author. He has gotten to know the author quite well over the past two decades.  That brings a large smile to his face. What an author!What a father! What a friend!