This is a fairy tale I wrote a few years ago. It's not my best work, but it still brings tears to my eyes when I re-read it. Today is Easter, and it's a day to remember our King and Father's sacrifice. So here's my little fairy tale, dedicated to Him.
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Once upon a time, a princess - born
to be great, to have a happy ending, to conquer the world –needed to mature and
understand her father’s love for her. So
her father placed her in the home of the enemy camp, just like every prince and
princess before her. But before he left,
he gave her many promises to keep hidden in her heart.
“I love
you. You are mine. I’ll be watching you,
and I’ll make sure things never get so tough that you can’t handle it. Don’t forget who you are. Don’t forget who I am. Talk to me and I’ll walk and talk with
you. And trust me that I’ll be back for
you and you will have a happy ending. No
matter what happens; never forget I love you.”
At first,
the princess easily remembered her father’s promises. She could almost hear his voice saying every
word. She cherished every intonation of
his voice.
Then her new parents in the enemy
camp told her how her father didn’t exist.
They said, “How could anyone who supposedly loved us all just abandon us
into this awful world and then leave his children to fend for themselves.”
And then her new father abused her in hideous ways, and told her that
she belonged to him. When she told her
new mother, she called the princess a liar and beat her. She cried out to her
real father, but he never answered and his promise that he’d be watching
started to fade in her mind.
When she went to school, the
children picked on her because she looked and acted differently, and because
she refused to do the bad things that they were doing. When they discovered she didn’t defend
herself, they beat her and spat upon her whenever they were not under adult
supervision. The torture waited for her
every day until she feared going to school, and she found no solace at home.
She cried out to her father, but he
never answered, and his promise that he’d make sure she’d be able to handle
anything that came her way started to fade.
The teachers at school taught her
that no one placed her into her circumstances – instead everything happened by
chance. They taught her that she was no princess, but developed from a series
of accidents, just like everyone else.
And she would never be any better or worse than anyone else. Happy endings did not exist unless you become
happy where you were, and learned to be accepted by becoming like everyone else.
She asked her father about these
things, but he never answered, so she stopped talking to him.
Then they tested her on these
teachings, and made her repeat them over and over again for twelve long years
until she began to believe it. she
started to conform herself to behaving like the other children, so that she no
longer looked or acted different, and started doing the same things that they
were doing. Soon, the children stopped
picking on her and started to pick on the new boy who claimed to be a prince.
Love took on new meaning for the
princess in this world. Her parents told
her that they loved her, yet abused her daily.
All the boyfriends that she had in school wanted to do with her the same
things her father did. All the
girlfriends that she made were nice at first, then seethed with jealousy every
time she got any good thing or made a new friend, or gained any boys attention
– and they would abandon her when she asked them for help.
She started to believe that love
was nothing more than a fairy tale that she used to believe until she knew
better. Deep in her heart, the desire to
find love still remained. So when a
young man one day told her that he loved her and would take care of her
forever, she believed him. She married
him and thought that this would finally be her happy ending.
But he never seemed to understand
her or what she needed. They fought
often about money, their jobs, their children, and every little thing that came
along. Their home no longer held any
comfort for her and as another young man at work started to compliment her and
seemed to love her more, she found herself falling into his arms. She divorced her husband and left her
children.
The princess chased love everywhere
it promised to be, and it always seemed to be just out of the reach of her
fingers. She grew older, and things got
so bad that the young men no longer paid attention to her. Her ex-husband hated her, found a new wife,
and refused to let her see her children.
Their children hated her and didn’t want to see her anyway.
She became poor and started to live
on the street. Sleeping in the gutter at
night, she began to hear a voice that seemed familiar, but that she’d forgotten
a long time ago.
“I
love you. You are mine. I’ll be watching
you, and I’ll make sure things never get so tough that you can’t handle
it. Don’t forget who you are. Don’t forget who I am. Talk to me and I’ll walk and talk with you. And
trust me that I’ll be back for you and you will have a happy ending. No matter what happens, never forget I love
you.”
The voice was not believable, so
she didn’t believe it. How could she? No
one loved her. If there was anything she
learned in this world – it was that she belonged to no one. Things were always so tough that they were
out of anyone’s control. She was nothing
more than trash in the gutter, and how could anyone call this ending: Happy?
The princess grew weak and one day
fainted and crashed her head on the sidewalk.
A stranger found her and took her to a hospital, where she discovered
she was dying. Though the hospital told
her husband and children, no one came to see her.
Then a nurse came in who acted different and
looked different from everyone else. She
treated the princess differently as well.
The nurse always did above and beyond what her job required. If the princess needed extra help after
hours, the nurse would come and do it, and would be happy while she did. The nurse read to her, sang to her, and
sometimes when she thought the princess was asleep, the nurse would pray over
her.
“Why do you do the things you do
for me?” The princess asked her.
“Because you and I have a lot in
common, my father told me so.” The nurse
answered.
This confused the princess. “Who is your father?”
The nurse told the princess all
about her father. How he loved the
nurse, how he watched over the nurse and made sure things never got so tough
that she couldn’t handle it. How she trusted him, and how he walked and talked
with her everyday and that she never felt alone.
A pang of jealousy hit the
princess, and she didn’t understand it.
Those promises that the nurse spoke of felt as though they should have
belonged to the princess, too, but didn’t.
As though the nurse heard the
princess’ thoughts, she said “These promises belong to you, too. My father is your father as well. But he told me that you stopped talking to
him. That when things got tough, you stopped
believing in him, and no longer heard his voice.”
The princess felt guilt in her
heart and started to cry.
The nurse continued, “He told you
that things would be tough, and to trust him no matter what. He told you to never forget him, or who you
are, but you forgot.”
The princess heard the words, knew
that they were true, and cried embarrassingly.
“You are a princess. You belong to him, and he’s coming back for
you to make a happy ending for you, but you’re not ready for him.”
Downtrodden, and feeling lower than
when she slept in the gutter, the princess could hardly meet the nurse’s gaze.
“Do you remember? Do you want to get ready for him?”
The princess looked up, and a spark
of hope ignited her heart. She could barely squeak out a “Yes.”
The nurse told the princess a
strange story about the king. How the
king put himself in the enemy camp, to be abused and reviled. The enemies had their way with the king, and
when they’d had their fun, they killed him.
Shocked, the princess gasped. Her
father, the king was dead.
“No,” the nurse said, smiling, “He
didn’t stay dead. This happened long
before either of us were born.”
By allowing his own death in the
enemy camp, the enemies could no longer kill any of his children. He fulfilled a law written before the enemy
camp existed, one they hardly remembered themselves. The enemies couldn’t keep his children as
their own, and they couldn’t harm the heart of one child unless he/she allowed
them to.
“And you, princess, have allowed
them to harm your heart.”
The tears sprung up afresh, because
the princess knew it was true.
“What do I do?” The princess
asked. Bedridden, with no strength in
her body, there wasn’t much that she could do.
“Just believe. Believe the promises that your father gave
you from the beginning. Trust him, love
him, and believe that he loves you. And
then you’ll be ready for him when he comes.”
“But I let the enemies get to my
heart. Not only did I stop believing,
but I’ve done so many bad things. How will he ever forgive me?”
“He loves you, and that’s what love
does. It covers up everything bad that
you’ve done, every mistake that you’ve made.
And that’s what he’ll do when he comes; Love you.”
“How? How do I do it? How do I believe?”
“Remember the promises he’s given
you and trust them. Live in them. Never let them go. Soon you’ll see that the way you look at the
world will change, your heart will change, and when you’re ready, he’ll come.
He’s waiting for you to be ready.”
When the princess heard this, joy
filled her heart. He was waiting for the
princess to be ready. She determined to
be ready.
Every morning she repeated her
father’s promises to herself. “I know you love me. I am yours. You are watching me, and you’ll
make sure things never get so tough that I can’t handle it. I won’t forget who you are. I won’t forget who I am. I’ll talk to you and
you’ll walk and talk with me. And I’ll trust you that you’ll be back for me and
you will give me a happy ending. No
matter what happens, I’ll never forget that you love me.”
She believed and she became
ready. Before her father came, the
princess began to heal and meet other people, her brothers and sisters who were
waiting for their father as well. Some
were ready and some were not. Those who
weren’t ready, she tried to remind of the promises. Some listened and some didn’t.
The princess talked to her father
and soon began to hear his voice. She
tried to make peace with her family and though they were not ready to make
peace with her, she talked to her father about them and hoped that one day they
would.
Full of
hope, she continued to work through the rough waters of life until her father
came. He fulfilled all his promises, and
took her home to be with him. And the
princess lived happily ever after.
James 1:2-3 Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience.
