Fairy Tales and Valentine's Day

I love fairy tales. Those, “and they lived happily ever after” stories. Last night I went to my school’s production of Into the Woods. For those of you unfamiliar with the play, the first half tells the intertwining tales of various fairy tales, and how they arrived to their happily ever after. The second half shares the true ever after, and how it isn’t so happy. The whole play had many interesting spins, but what led me to write this up, was today when I read a story in the bible whose story line seems quite similar.

I was reading Ezekiel 16, which my bible entitles The Lord’s faithless bride. Its starts off sharing the tragic state he finds his bride in. Much like Cinderella, who was unloved by her step family, the story writes of this bride to be, “No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you…you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.” It’s all terribly sad. I mean the life painted by these words seems quite hopeless. But what happens next, I think, is a far greater story than Cinderella’s journey to royalty. For unlike Cinderella who was clothed and seen in beauty in the eyes of her prince, this girl was seen by her prince in a state quite the contrary. The story reads, “And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’” The story proceeds to tell of how this girl got her happily ever after. How the prince made her his, and gave her everything. And if this story wasn’t similar to Into the Woods, but rather like the fairy tales we grew up with, the story would have ended like this, “You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord God.” And oh how I wish the story could just end there. I mean I already love this story more than Cinderella. It’s a story of love not begotten by beauty, but rather love obtained by something greater. Love itself I suppose, though I am not really sure. It is a bit of an unknown why the King of Kings would love such a tragic thing, but it does make a beautiful love story nonetheless! And so I wish it would just end right there.

Sadly, however, the story doesn’t end there. It goes on to share the real ever after. An after that starts of like this, “But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore…” I’m not going to retell it, but I would encourage you to read it. It will make you mad and sad as you read in detail the wretched ugliness that this girl turns her beauty into, and then you will realize that you are the princess in this fairy tale. And like her, “happily ever after” wasn’t enough for you, so you ruined it. You’ll wish so desperately that the story never continued, you’ll wish that the book could have just stopped with its vague telling of the afterwards by using that cliché simple ending of happiness. But then a glimmer of hope will spark in your heart. A statement really, that says, maybe the story isn’t finished yet. Maybe there’s still a chance at a happy ending. Maybe the same kind of love that rescued the girl “wallowing in her blood,” will rescue the whore living in her filth and unfaithfulness. I mean it has to be a long shot, since who would rescue a whore, and yet that hope still remains. And then as you read about this one-of-a-kind prince; a prince whose father calls himself love. And you think maybe this story will be redeemed. Maybe this will be a grander love story yet.

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and as I think of all the love stories this world has produced, I can't help but think how I have yet to discover one grander than the one I’m in. The one where my prince claims me and grows me in exceeding beauty. I’m undeserving of it, I know. But this Valentine’s Day, I don’t want to make it about me and my filth. And what I turned my happily ever after into. I want to spend it reflecting the kind of love that was given me in spite of my filth. And I want to dream of the ending that is still to come as I let my Love reclaim me and make me His.