September 19, 2008
My three-year-old daughter has a collection of three inch high plastic dolls, each a princess from the major Disney film versions of the fairy tales Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin.
The little ladies will frequently disappear (as toys often do), and since they’re among the favorite treasures of our daughter, we often find her on some sort of manhunt (or should I say, “womanhunt”?). If her efforts prove fruitless, she avails herself of help from us: other members of our family spread out and look at all her favorite play spots around our home, sometimes successfully and sometimes not.
On one or two occasions we’ve found them unexpectedly when helping her to pick up her playthings, stopping momentarily to curiously peer into a Blue’s Clues toy treasure chest or a toy purse that she had “packed” for an afternoon at Grandma Mary’s house. And, sadly, there have been some unfortunate altercations between the tiny princesses and our large Labrador “puppy”, Shadow, who views unwatched toys as fair game. As a result, Cinderella lost her hair and Snow White’s arms were… um… shortened a great deal. While I think bald could be a good look for Cinderella, we managed to fix her hair again. Even so, it’s a good thing that Snow White lives in a house filled with dwarfs: all the kitchen cabinets are built low.
Anyway, my daughter approached me a couple of moments ago. “Cinderella’s hiding again,” she announced solemnly.
I turned my eyes towards her and asked, “What was that, honey?”
“Cinderella’s hiding again,” she repeated with a wistful sigh. She then strode away to practice her skills at writing the letter “A” while sitting in her mother’s lap at the dining room table. I was left to reflect on the wayward habits of her little princesses and found myself reminded a bit of some kingdom truths.
Did you know, for example, that you, if you have in truth personally received Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life, have been made royalty?
“You did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit (of God) Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory” (Romans 8:15-17 NIV).
And once having been made a part of the royal family of God, you are considered by Him as His own. You have a place to belong! Not only that, you are regarded as beautiful, crafted with the skill only the Master Artisan Himself could achieve. You are a priceless treasure given a dignity and worth that nothing made by man on earth can rival.
While our daughter’s affection for her pocket-sized princesses seems uncanny at times (she’s been faithfully devoted to them for over a year and a half – a very long time for a preschooler to love a toy), God’s love for you is also “uncanny”. He never tires of you, for you are His precious child.
And just think, even when you “go into hiding” by shrinking away from His love and fellowship with His people, He always knows right where you are. Even if you hide in the “nooks and crannies” of life’s busyness, or in the cracks and crevices of brokenness and sorrow, He sees you and loves you!
“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, You right hand will hold me fast. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You” (Psalm 139:7-13 NIV).
And if per chance you find yourself “mauled” by life’s circumstances, the jaws of hurt have closed around your heart or the shadow of grief has darkened your soul, remember Who can bring the healing your life needs. It may even happen that, having made some sort of sinful choice, you feel that you’ve been shorn of anything beautiful and doubt that God can love you. But your Father in heaven can do far better than glue hair back onto plastic heads; He can cleanse and forgive, restoring true beauty to the one who truly repents and returns to Him.
Or you may feel that, having at some point somehow turned your back on Him, you can never serve Him again, that your arms have been too shortened and that your life has been rendered ineffective or that there is no future for you in serving Him. But this also is a lie. The life that is meaningful and effective in serving God is the life that is fully surrendered to Him, no matter one’s past. Our pasts sometimes have a way of influencing the shape of our service to Him, but they cannot nullify them. Even after our biggest failures there is a place for each of us at His table, a place to be refreshed and encouraged, healed and empowered, that we may join Him in the fellowship of His love as He reaches through us into the lives of others.
Are you emotionally and spiritually in hiding? Do you feel unloved or unwanted? Are you hurt, maimed by life’s painful trials and doubts? If you’ve not really yet surrendered your life to Jesus, receiving by faith in Him God’s forgiveness, then don’t delay in receiving Him now. Just tell Him that you know that Jesus died for you, and that because He rose from the dead, that you can have new life in Him. Ask Him to be your Lord and Savior.
And if you are a Believer already, but struggle with discouragement, remember that you are a part of the most royal family of all. Remember that God created you with purpose and that in Jesus, His Son, you will find your life filled with significance and power for living.
(Thom Mollohan and his family have ministered in southern Ohio the past thirteen years and is the author of The Fairy Tale Parables: Classic Fairy Tales Pointing to God's Love and Truth. He is the pastor of Pathway Community Church and may be reached for comments or questions by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).
