Thankful Ever After by Melissa McKellen
“We can be thankful for the fairytale God has written for us”
Introduction:
In March 2015, Disney released a live action movie version of the fairytale Cinderella. This was a beautiful movie version of this story. Cinderella is an amazing character who displays courage and kindness in the midst of sorrow and pain. In a moment during the story when Cinderella was ready to give up hope, she was visited by a fairy Godmother, which through magic enabled her to spend an enchanted evening with her prince. Sometimes, do you ever wish that your life were like a fairytale?
Disney movies or the versions of fairytales we may have grown up reading or watching are usually very beautiful and magical. We are drawn to them and we want our lives to look like them. And sometimes they do, we get glimpses of them like weddings, or holding a sweet, “sleeping” newborn baby, or walking on a beach with a loved one, or exploring a new place with our family or friends. But what happens when our stories don’t look like the fairytales we grew up with? Do we abandon the thought of our life as a fairytale?
Lets think about some hard things we all know can be true, for instance sometimes we might not be married to someone with the last name of “charming” or maybe we don’t have a prince for a son or a princess for a daughter, or maybe we don’t have anyone to call a prince or a princess and maybe we don’t live in a castle or even near one for that matter. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t have birds and forest animals helping me clean my house.
So how is our life a fairytale if it doesn’t look fun and happy all the time? We must remember fairytales have darkness too. But how can we be thankful ever after if there is darkness?
We must change the way we think. We must change the way we see our life, or better yet the way we expect to see our life.
Our theme verse this year in PWOC, is Romans 12:2 which says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” I want us to look at some of the elements of what makes up a fairytale today. I want us to look at our stories as different from what the world thinks our stories should be.
A fairytale provides a different perspective in life to see the good in the midst of the bad. We need to realize that a fairytale is a different kind of story. Our story is a different kind of story because God wrote it. Lets begin together by looking at some of the elements of a fairytale…
I. The beginning
All fairytales have a beginning. The opening of a fairytale differentiates a fairytale from any other story. For example, the phrase, “Once upon a time” begins a fairytale. This is a unique phrase and a signal to the reader the story is beginning. In the story of Cinderella we see in the movie version she is born to a wonderful mother who loves her very much and cares deeply for her. We are given a glimpse at how her mother values Cinderella. She is uniquely loved and thought of.
We have a beginning to our fairytales too. We have someone who uniquely loved us and thought of us too, in a way described in Psalm 139:13-14. It says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” The Psalmist writes that our stories begin in the womb. God has uniquely designed each one of us. It is here where our fairytale begins. The beginning of our thankfulness is where God chose to form us. We can be thankful for the beginning of our fairytales.
II. The Setting
Our second element is setting. The setting of a fairytale is defined by when and where the story takes place. It is a physical time and place where the action takes place. There are many times when setting changes in a fairytale. Sometimes a setting can be wonderful and inspirational.
**When we were living overseas we took a trip to England to see a castle. It is a real castle known for a famous setting to a popular TV show called, Downton Abbey. When we arrived at the castle I expected to see more about the show I loved, but the people were so much more interested in telling us all about the real history of the castle. They didn’t want to talk about the show.
Of course I wanted to know the real history, but I was so distracted by the beautiful setting I knew from the TV show. I couldn’t help half listening to one of the ladies talking when we reached the bottom of the stairs in the grand entryway because I was thinking the whole time, “I just walked down the stairs where, Lady Mary walked,”- one of my favorite characters from the show. And while the tour lady continued to talk to us at the bottom of the stairs, right in front of the fireplace in that room about the real earl who lived there during that time and what he had accomplished, I was thinking “but that’s where two of my favorite characters danced.” I was so distracted by the romantic version of the setting in that castle. And it was a gorgeous castle with a rich history, but the reality of it was not as fascinating as the show. I fell in love with a setting that wasn’t real.
How much do we do this in our lives? How much do we expect from our settings? We expect that something is beautiful, so it must make us happy and if it is not beautiful we might not be happy. Our expectations of our settings can sometimes cloud our ability to see the reality of where we are, especially if we are expecting our settings to fill our hearts and comfort us and give us security. That is something sometimes a setting is not meant to do.
Sometimes the setting is not a place that is desired, but a place no one wants to be or maybe a new place that you don’t want to go or live.
And while for me, it wasn’t bad being in that castle the day I went on my tour. It was bad 3 years before that when I heard we had orders to move to Germany from Texas. That was not expected and certainly not desired. In fact I never wanted to travel overseas, which is interesting when you are in the military. My setting and what I was holding onto for stability was about to drastically change back then.
This can be the same for all of us. Our settings often change and even more so for those of us in the military due to our constant moves. We can’t rely on our setting to be a source of stability for us. We must find something else.
In the movie, Cinderella, her setting changes during the story. She is first seen to be living in a beautiful home, sleeping in a nice room. Later, we see that while she stays in her nice home she changes rooms in the story to the attic, a cold dark place where no one would want to go. She finds stability however in her mother. Her mother’s words to her before she died were, “be kind and have courage.” These words served as a constant strength to Cinderella. They became a refuge for her, a safe place, when her setting changed. We have this kind of safe place too.
Psalm 18:2 says, “The Lord is my rock and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” God is our refuge. He is our safe place when our physical setting changes.
We can be thankful because while our settings may change, He remains the same, He is our constant, our rock, our strong fortress. What did we say earlier about not living in a castle like we see in some fairytales? I think this is the best castle we could ever find ourselves living in and we can give thanks to God for this amazing setting, our safe place in Him!
III. The Plot
Our third element to look at is the plot of a fairytale and it is defined as the sequence of events within the story. The events in a story help to move the story along. We have a sequence of events in our fairytales too. The Bible calls them circumstances. In I Thess. 5:16-18, it says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all your circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Let’s insert in this verse for the word “circumstances,” the phrase “sequence of events.” That is our plot. According to the Bible we are to give thanks for our plot, our sequence of events. Being thankful for our plot does not mean that we will feel thankful for each event. That is not possible, we are created with emotions that God gave us to experience all seasons, we may have an event that causes grief or pain, or we may have an event that causes joy and relief.
We will have moments or events that we do not “feel” thankful for. That is okay, we can still trust God’s plan. He is the author of our fairytale and He is moving our stories along. There is always a reason for the sequence of events in our fairytales.
In Cinderella’s story her events are very sad, she loses her mother, then she loses her father. But this was not the end of her story. When we experience a sad event it doesn’t mean our stories our over. Living a fairytale doesn’t mean you won’t experience grief, sorrow, and pain. When you do experience these things, you will feel sad or angry especially at a trial or loss in your life.
However, you can give thanks in your circumstances because you have an author who is writing your story with a purpose and a plan.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:11-13, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
We also have an amazing author who reveals things we need to know in His timing. He knows the best time to reveal things to us. Sometimes it’s like a special secret He reveals to us at just the right moment.
**When we moved here to New Jersey, a little over a year ago, there were no available houses on base for us to move in. We moved here from overseas and it was very overwhelming. I hadn’t expected to have to adjust to being back in America, but it was a huge adjustment. We were staying in the TLF on base and we started looking for homes. We had prayed with our children about God providing a house for us even when we first heard we would be moving here.
We knew God had a plan, but it was not easy house hunting and we were becoming weary at no prospects. After 2 weeks of looking at homes, some of them being places I was surprised they were legal to rent; I just started praying for a safe, affordable home. I remember telling my husband that we prayed about this, why is this so hard?
Finally the day came for us to look at what we decided was our last house, we were just done and felt we needed make a decision. The house was almost 40 minutes from the base, but it seemed a good choice so we thought this is it. We only had one vehicle at the time as we were still waiting on the other to be shipped from overseas, so I had to pick my husband, Mark from a meeting. I left the kids at the TLF and when Mark got in the car he said, “guess what?” I just looked at him because when you are in those kinds of sequence of events that make you just feel angry and stressed out you don’t feel like guessing, but my husband started telling me that housing had called and they had a house for us. I could feel the tears coming; we were so relieved at the chance to live on base and couldn’t wait to tell our kids.
When we finally told them, my youngest daughter said, “Wait, if God knew this whole time we were going to live on base, then why did we spend all that time looking at houses off base?” I remember thinking good question! I wondered that too. Why did God make us look at all of those other houses?
Deut. 29:29, says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”
Maybe it was because He knew the best timing to reveal His surprise to us. Maybe He knew that because we had prayed with our children, He took an ordinary event like house hunting and made it special so our children could witness His care for us.
How much more did we appreciate His provision because we had to wait for His perfect timing in His perfect plan? We can be thankful for a creative and all knowing author who is writing the plot of our fairytales. We can be thankful for our “sequence of events!”
IV. The Conflict
The fourth element is the conflict of a fairytale and it is defined as a struggle within the plot. This can be an internal struggle, which is where a character in the story struggles on the inside with emotions or feelings. Conflict can also be an external struggle, when a character struggles with events, other people or things on the outside. Every fairytale has conflict. Sometimes the external conflicts cause the internal conflicts as well. We see this again in the story of Cinderella. She has an external conflict with her stepmother and her stepsisters who treat her in a cruel way, speaking harsh words to her and commanding her to do chores for them around the house. These external conflicts begin to cause internal conflict for Cinderella. She is starting to waver in this part of the story. She feels her strength and courage and even her kindness beginning to leave her. She is weary and ready to give up.
This happens in our stories too. These struggles are often when our stories seem the most in the dark. We may have both kinds of conflict occurring at the same time. Often this happens. How can we be thankful for these struggles?
We can be thankful in these times of struggle because we can turn to Him for His strength. Psalm 73:26 says, “My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
**When my grandfather died, it triggered an internal conflict for me. Before I got married I was living at home with my parents and my grandparents came for a visit with us for the weekend and had even been telling me a story from their honeymoon. My grandfather died suddenly in our home during that weekend visit and it was troubling for me to witness. It was hard for me to see how his life with my grandmother was over. I was about to get married, and I became afraid. I was afraid of death, the suddenness and finality of it. I saw how I couldn’t control it. And my heart failed me. I started doubting everything I had learned, and I became depressed and withdrawn. I did not know how to get out of it. I felt ashamed and alone and without hope. One night, my dad came to me and talked to me about my feelings. I confessed to him my fears of death. He reminded me that night of God’s grace. He said, “Sweetheart you can’t borrow grace, you only get the grace you need for the day. God can give you grace to die when it’s time, but right now you need to take the grace He has given you for today. You need to accept His grace to live and come back to the land of the living.”
Our flesh is weary during our struggles, our hearts our weak during our struggles but His grace is sufficient for our struggles and He renews our strength! 2 Cor. 12:9 says, “…My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…” We can be thankful for His grace to endure the conflict in our fairytales!
V. The Magic
The fifth element in fairytales for us to look at today is magic. Magic is a power that influences the sequence of events in the story. In Cinderella, the story seems dark until the magic that is performed by Cinderella’s fairy Godmother. It intervenes in Cinderella’s sequence of events and you see magical solutions. Cinderella is transformed from a sad girl in rags to a joyful girl in a beautiful gown. She is given a magical carriage made from a pumpkin and its all such a magical moment.
Doesn’t that make us wish we had a fairy Godmother too or maybe at least if we could just borrow her wand!
Do we ever see magical things happen in our stories? What about magical moments?
Of course we do! We have magic in our fairytales too. It may not look like dressed up mice and glass slippers, but we have it!
We have a power that is at work in us, through the very author of our stories!
The Bible says in Ephesians 3:19-20, “ And to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,”
This is a power that we can’t measure and it’s a power we have access to through prayer! All we have to do is ask. Matt. 7:7, states, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
In Cinderella, she has a magical fairy Godmother who listens to her concerns and helps her. She knew exactly what Cinderella needed. Cinderella didn’t even have to be specific in her troubles.
We have the same thing in our amazing Father, He listens to our concerns and He helps us before we can even express it properly, He knows exactly what we need.
**Recently my mom had surgery and I could not be there during that time. Her surgery ended up going well, but she was struggling a bit with pain and had to stay in the hospital longer than she had planned for. I wanted so desperately to be there for her; to hold her hand and sit by her bed and pray with her. I couldn’t, I could only pray.
She told me later when she was able to go home that a lady had come to her room that she did not know and sat down by her bed. She told me the lady prayed the most sincere prayer and that she held her hand.
I was so moved that what I had not spoken in prayer to the Lord was accomplished, it had only been on my heart. I had been praying for my mom of course, but my wishes to be there were the cry of my heart and God knew that.
He knows the cry of our hearts today too! He has the power to answer each request we have and to show us His power. Isaiah 65:24 says, “ Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.”
We can be thankful for an author who hears and sees us! We can be thankful for the magic that is more than we can imagine in our fairytales!
VI. The Theme
A sixth element in a fairytale is theme. The theme is the main idea of a story, a main lesson or moral that the author wants us to learn. The theme of our fairytales can teach us something about ourselves and about our stories.
What is the theme of our fairytale that God has written for us? The theme of our fairytale is that each one of us would be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. In Romans 8:29-30, it states, “ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he has also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified.” God is using our stories to do this. We see this again in our verse from this year, Rom. 12:2, we need to remember that we are not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and thru testing we may discern what is the will of God in our lives and what is good and acceptable and perfect. We need to allow God to change us thru our stories to be more like Him.
In the story of Cinderella, when the fairy Godmother appears to her and uses her magic to help her, Cinderella is transformed into a beautiful princess and looking ready to go to a ball, however she is still a little apprehensive and is concerned about being discovered for who she really is. In the movie version of this story her fairy Godmother gives her a special spell to make her appear as someone else but it only lasts until midnight. She gives her the beauty of a magical night with a prince who she falls in love with.
This transformation for Cinderella doesn’t last, the spell is over at midnight and she is left with only one glass shoe as she lost the other running away from the prince. She must face the reality of her circumstances again but something has transformed her that isn’t on the outside it’s happened on the inside. Cinderella is beginning to feel loved again after such cruel treatment from her stepmother and stepsisters and while the physical beauty is gone from the magic the night before she has gained the love of a prince, she is being transformed by this love. She has hope again and is able to show love to others.
We can be thankful for our transformations too! We can be thankful we have an author who reveals His theme to us and is in love with us and purposeful in writing our stories to transform us to be more like Christ!
VII. The Characters
Another element in fairytales is the characters. Within any fairytale there are different characters. It’s who the story is about and they are the people in the story who carry out the actions. There are main characters, good characters and bad characters and as we have seen in the example of Cinderella, there are even magical characters.
In our fairytales, we are the characters who move the action along. However, Jesus is the main character, not us. He sustains us and promises not to leave us.
**When our children were little and would throw tantrums about something they could not have, we would say to them. “Life is not all about you, life is about who? “ They would answer sometimes while rolling their eyes that life was about God, not them. It was simple but affective for us as parents to get their focus off of them, off of what they thought their story was about.
We can do this too. The Bible tells us in I Cor. 10:31, “so whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” That means all of our actions as characters in our story can be done for God. When those magical forest characters from the fairytales we remember don’t show up to clean our homes for us, even that can be done by us and still be about God. We can do it all for him.
He sees us at all times and He promises our works and labors of love are not in vain and that He is with us. Hebrews 6:10 says, “For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints.”
Also in Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God is in your midst , a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”
**I love the last part of that verse from Zephaniah, about the singing. Have you ever found that you have a sweet song on your mind about God, maybe one you have learned in your past? This verse makes me think God just whispers it to us when He knows we need a song and it enters our hearts and fills our minds and before we know it we are singing!
We can be thankful that we are characters in our fairytales, we can be thankful that the author of our story is the main character and He is not only writing the story, He is right beside us through out it.
VIII. The Ending
Our final element is the ending of the fairytale. The ending of most fairytales is again a unique ending just as the beginning was. The phrase is this, “And they lived happily ever after till the end of their days.”
In Cinderella’s story she has the love of a prince who pursues her even when she runs away. He never stopped looking for her until he found her in the end. He promised to marry her and give her a home.
We have that prince in our stories too. His name is Jesus Christ and He never stops pursuing us. He will search for us until He finds us and He has promised us a home with him. He tells us in His Word in the book of John that we should not let our hearts be troubled, and that He has gone to prepare a place for us.
In John 14:3 Jesus says, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” And that is where we have our ending. We have an eternal home with Him that is not of this world.
That is again why he reminds us in Romans 12:2, to not be conformed to this world, we do not belong here. One day He will take us to our forever home and we will live with him forever.
We can be thankful that our hope is not of this world. We can be thankful ever after because God is bringing us through this life, conforming us to the image of His Son, and into our happily ever after. We can be thankful for our ending! We can be thankful ever after!
