Illustrator John Hendrix’s picture book Miracle Man: The Story of Jesus gathered rave reviews three years ago. This year, The Faithful Spy, an unabashedly Christian take on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, has attracted even more attention. Hendrix, a Presbyterian Church in America elder, has a secular publisher that has never made an issue of his spiritual themes. “Christians are a market, and my editor recognizes that,” he says.

Many Bible-readers know Proverbs 22:6, which reads, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” So do many publishers of children’s books, and they may not have the best interests of your child at heart.

If you weren’t spending last month on sabbatical in Tibet, you probably saw that notorious Gillette ad that set the internet watercooler buzzing. The razor blade manufacturer, which once modestly promised the finest shave a man can get, now pontificates on how men can be their best—and what’s wrong with that?

Headlines like “The Relentlessness of Modern Parenting” always grab my attention. The New York Times article spotlights a divorced, middle-income mother who feels daily pressure to be there for her 11-year-old son. “Being there” means nightly supervision of homework and daytime ferrying to piano lessons, soccer practice, swimming lessons, martial arts competitions, and enrichment classes of all kinds (starting at age 4).

I’ve discovered that if you live long enough, “history” is something you actually remember. In a sense, it’s you. When I entered high school, Churchill and Eisenhower (only recently deceased) were history, while JFK still seemed current. In my 40s, I was shocked to realize that the Vietnam War had become history. Wait a minute—I lived through that!

It’s the classic quest story: the hero (or heroine) is toiling in the mundane fields or shops of everyday life when the summons occurs—a special calling or challenge. Gandalf appears in the Shire; Lucy walks through the back of the wardrobe; the burdened Pilgrim flees his doomed city.

The adventure begins.

It’s a story worthy of a tech-thriller screenplay: A brilliant young scientist cuts through red tape and brushes aside the cautions of his tradition-bound peers to perfect a life-saving technique. Under a cloak of secrecy he defies the odds and presents the world with its first gene-edited babies, twins who are immune to the ravages of AIDS.