Anne of Green Gables

A Devotional by Melissa Woodward

My childhood and access to entertainment is much different than the access my children have. There were no streaming platforms to watch your favorite show or movie at any given time. I didn’t have a cell phone to access those as well. There was no YouTube to search for anything you could think of or listen to music. If you missed your television show, you couldn’t catch up on Netflix, you had to wait until the summer and hopefully catch a rerun. We didn’t have cable and only had access to a handful of channels for us to choose from. I loved PBS, so many great shows to watch. I fell in love with Anne of Green Gables the first time I watched it, and I would always look at the printed schedule for the upcoming week to see if it was playing again. And I know PBS needed to have promotional breaks to raise monies for their station, but it was so hard for me to wait. I would do something else and then occasionally come back to the channel to see if the break was over.

One of the favorite things my daughter and I enjoy doing together is visiting Barnes and Noble. We don’t always buy ourselves a new book, but we browse and read several book jackets. During our last visit as I was browsing the entire store, my eye caught an Anne of Green Gables devotion which included a discussion on how the movie relates to the bible. For those of you who have not read the book, seen the movie, or the television series, the premise is that brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert want to adopt a boy to help them on their farm called Green Gables located on Prince Edward Island in Canada. Waiting at the train station when Matthew arrives is a girl, Anne Shirley, not a boy, who he takes home. Matthew is very shy and soft spoken, and Anne talks the entire ride to Green Gables, she has a great imagination. Marilla would like to take Anne back for a boy instead, but she ends up staying with the Cuthberts and I’ll let you find out the rest on your own, I don’t want to ruin the surprise of the adventures she has and the trouble she gets into, (including but not limited to baking, the lake, haunted woods, and walking a ridgepole), the friendship with her kindred spirit Diana, and an interesting relationship with Gilbert.

Anne learns a lot about religion from Marilla and from attending church. She learned about the importance of praying and a little about how to focus her prayer. I can see in my mind Anne kneeling by her bed for her first prayer and all the individuals she included. She also meets and forms a connection with Mrs. Allen, the minister’s wife. She was a great role model for Anne.

In the beginning, Anne was not what Marilla was expecting or wanted. Marilla, I feel learned a lot about herself and her faith while getting to know Anne and raising her. Not only did Anne realize it was okay to be herself, but Marilla also learned that as well, and not to worry so much about what others thought (Rachel, their nosy neighbor). You should give people a chance. Marilla made some mistakes in accusations and learned to ask for forgiveness, which Anne forgave. There are so many great lessons in this story about love and friendship, about forgiveness and standing up for yourself.

You could imagine my surprise when on a trip with my family as a teenager in Grand Haven, MI that I saw an Anne of Green Cables store. What a joy to walk in and see all things related to Green Gables. I ended up purchasing a bookmark. Years back my daughter and I attended a play performance at the Midland Center for the Arts based on the book, which was wonderful. I love this story and I would recommend finding the best platform for you and learning more about Green Gables. I am not exaggerating when I say it will change your life, the way you look at things, and you will just fall in love with all the characters.

I didn’t spend the money to purchase the book, but maybe on our next adventure to the bookstore. I better go now; I need to go pull out my VHS and watch one of my favorite movies, it’s been too long. Yes, I do own the VHS and a player.