A frog becomes a prince, Cinderella becomes the belle of the ball, an ugly duckling becomes a beautiful swan, the underdog comes out on top, an orphaned, Jewish girl in a foreign land becomes the Queen of Persia, a hillbilly family from the Ozarks moves to Beverly Hills (to a house with a ‘ce-ment‘ pond!), plus any number of rags to riches tales. These stories fascinate and thrill us, and the more unlikely the way they unfold, the more we crave them. We read them, go to plays and operas and movies about them, are taught about them, discuss them in classes, are encouraged to create them ourselves. These are ‘feel good’ stories, ones we refer to on multiple occasions. But why? It seems there is something in the human spirit that longs for what is better, for grass that is greener, for a life that is happier, for family relationships to be healthy and intimate and enriching (could this be a vestige of the Garden?).
God’s love story tells of His unending desire for the greatest good of mankind, His Creation, a kind of perpetual search and rescue tale. It’s a story not unsimilar to the ones mentioned above. Maybe we invent stories like this to give expression to our deepest, innermost desires. And maybe this explains the outsized popularity of real-life rescues, and the heroes, that so capture our imaginations (can you count the number of superhero characters out there?).
God wired us for the ideal, for unsullied perfection, for sweet fellowship with no expiration date. But we live lives that are far from that, in a world that is far from that, with sin-infected hearts that have exiled us to the dark side of an abyss. We are completely helpless. We desperately need rescue. We need extreme makeover by an extreme Redeemer. “And the One who sat on the throne announced to His creation: ‘See, I am making all things new. . . It is done! I am Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will see to it that the thirsty drink freely from the fountain of the water of life. To the victors will go this inheritance. I will be their God, and they will be My children.’” (Revelation 21: 5-7, VOICE). That’s the Greatest Story Ever Told! See y’all tomorrow 10 AM, 2 PM UK, 3 PM, FR. PD
NOTE: I’d like to encourage us all to take full advantage of the worship set each week, lifting our hearts to the Lord with the worshipful content (not simply listening to a few songs), allowing the Lord to meet us in the sacred space of his Presence, preparing us for the continuation in our Sunday worship gathering. PD
