Happily, Ever After?

I enjoyed fairy tales when I was young. I don't think I'm alone in this because those same stories continue to be passed on from generation to generation -- even turned into TV shows and feature films. Why so popular? Because in the end they all live happily, ever after. But experience teaches us that's not how real life works. Throughout our lives we will continue to struggle with various problems: sorrow and heartbreak, financial struggles, relationship problems, sickness and, finally, death. Whatever we may have thought as kids, fairy tales don't come true.

Or do they?

When I was a senior in high school, I wondered about life after high school. It seemed a distant land full of promise: no more term papers, no more daily assignments, no more rules and regulations, no more curfews.

But I soon discovered life after high school was work, and rush-hour traffic, bills, and uncertainties. Then came college and a whole new set of hurdles to jump. Each time I crossed a threshold from one phase to another, I've found the new phase was never quite as golden as I thought it would be. Finishing college, taking my first job, watching my bride walk down the aisle, hearing the doctor say the baby is on his way -- those new phases are full of promise and joy, but they aren't happily, ever after, are they?

I expect the same thing will be true going forward if, God willing, I see retirement and the later years of my life. Each phase will have plenty of troubles, trials, tears, and frustrations of its own.

So, the fairy-tale ending is not realistic, at least not for this life. But what if we step back and look at the larger picture? What happens after death?

The night before Jesus died, He made a fairy-tale-like promise to His disciples -- and to each of us. "In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 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" (John 14:2-3).

God the Father is our Heavenly King. Jesus Christ is His Son, our Prince Charming. All of us as believers are the Cinderellas He raises from the dust to live with Him in His Kingdom.

On Judgment Day Jesus will return to take us home, and then with glorified bodies, we will live happily ever after in our Heavenly Father's house.

So, when you think about it, your life really is a fairy tale. We just won't get to that happily-ever-after part until Jesus returns to take us home. I think Paul had that fairy-tale ending in mind when he wrote, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Romans 8:18).

A fairy-tale ending ... that's not quite what we expect from this life, is it?

It seems knowing the end would make the journey we're on now all the more satisfying. Maybe that's where we step out in faith and let God do what He would with our lives.

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