The Gospel According to Cinderella

The other morning,‭ ‬I was in that transition between full-on sleep and rolling out of bed‭ ‬-‭ ‬not quite asleep,‭ ‬almost awake‭ ‬-‭ ‬when I began to consider how the story of Cinderella parallels the Gospel story.‭ ‬Maybe it began in a dream,‭ ‬maybe it was a Revelation from the Father,‭ ‬I can’t say,‭ ‬but what follows is more or less what occurred to me Sunday around‭ ‬6‭ ‬am.
Her early memories of joy and love in the bosom of her father are very much like the joy and love Eve‭ (‬and Adam‭) ‬experienced in Eden,‭ ‬or our own early days of innocence in life.‭ ‬Then tragedy struck.
In Cindy’s case,‭ ‬the loss of her father left her to the not-so-tender mercies of her step-mother and‭ ‬-sisters,‭ ‬and living in the shadowy edges of the home they had stolen.‭ ‬From her.‭ ‬In our case,‭ ‬sin broke the fellowship with our Heavenly Father and left us trapped with our Snaky Deceiver in the burnt out cinders of our hopes and dreams,‭ ‬slaves in the ruins of our inherited home.
Her day to day life was filled with dreams and hopes for rescue,‭ ‬our desire‭ (‬often sub-conscious‭) ‬is to return to those days of innocence and joy in fellowship with our Heavenly Father,‭ ‬a quest that seems even more far-fetched and impossible than a scullery maid longing for a Prince to rescue her.
Suddenly,‭ ‬in the midst of the gloom and dark of her daily struggle,‭ ‬a ray of hope broke through,‭ ‬and someone she had never known gave her the opportunity to meet the Prince.‭ ‬In one of the few‭ ‬accurate uses of this phrase,‭ ‬she said,‭ “‬I haven’t a thing to wear‭!” ‬With a few waves of the wand,‭ ‬Cindy is cleaned and coiffed and covered‭ ‬-‭ ‬through no power of her own‭! ‬Yes,‭ ‬just like her,‭ ‬all that we have in God’s eyes is‭ “‬filthy rags‭”‬.‭ ‬We’d‭ ‬never be fit for His Presence...without His intervention‭!
Then,‭ ‬at the Ball,‭ ‬she not only meets the Prince,‭ ‬he chooses her for love‭!! ‬That’s right,‭ ‬the very thing she’d been hoping for was coming true right before her eyes,‭ ‬so she did what so many in her place would‭ ‬-‭ ‬she ran away.‭
OK,‭ ‬you’re going to remind me about her deadline and everything turning back into pumpkins and mice yadda yadda.‭ ‬But in our story,‭ ‬when faced with the Promised Fulfillment,‭ ‬we often run and hide,‭ ‬either in shame or fear or astonishment,‭ ‬definitely knowing we’re not worthy of such Love.‭
So Love comes searching.
Do you think we would love the Cinderella story if there weren’t a‭ “‬Happily Ever After‭”? ‬The Gospel of Cinderella really is Our Gospel,‭ ‬because it has the only Happy Ending that matters.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Eph 2:4-7

Another Day Closer

How does your diary read? Remember when we were kids, and right after Halloween we began to really realize that Christmas was coming? If I had kept a diary, along with stories about my wonder dog Useless and my annoying baby brother, I honestly believe that there would have been many times I would have boldly (with exclamation points!!) written “Another Day Closer To CHRISTMAS!!”
Now that’s not to say we weren’t anticipating Halloween - more than a few hours were spent ogling magazine pictures of fancy store-bought costumes and planning our home-made copies. And of course, Thanksgiving, with its built-in expectation of eating yourself into a stupor. But Christmas was the Big Day, combining the gluttony of Thanksgiving with the greed of Halloween in a wonderful melange of pseudo-religious (Saint Nick, anyone?) nervous anxiety. Plus edible decorations! Not to mention mangers and stars and wise men and shepherds in the annual Christmas Pageant.
So we began the Countdown. As I write this, I found a website that has an active countdown to Christmas, marking Days, Hours, Minutes, AND Seconds. (78 Days, 14 Hours, etc.) At this point in my life, that’s TMI (Too Much Information, Geezers). Days are quite sufficient, especially since it will still sneak up on me and catch me by surprise somehow anyway. Ah, the Desperate Hours of Christmas Eve picking-over-the-ruined-remnants Shopping! (Not that I’ve EVER done that for YOU, my sweet little Pie-maker!! Besides, Christmas Jerky is delicious.)
But as it is written, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Cor. 2:9
I’m looking forward to Heaven, and these Holiday SADs (Seasonal Affective Delights, to improve a phrase) are good training grounds for that. I suspect that if you’ve thought much about Heaven, you’ve thought of it in the sad and tired old fictional imagery of “Halos, Harps, and Happy Clouds” - none of which are mentioned in the only document with comments from actual inhabitants and visitors, the Bible. No, what you find in that Book are descriptions of a never-ending “Rave”, with music, dancing, and general celebrating. That’s definitely something worth counting down to, and maybe we should consider getting a little more “aerobic” with our worship, and little less “funeral parlor-esque” in anticipation. (smiley face goes here)
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ Matt 25:21
“...into the joy...”
Now that deserves some exclamation points! Getting into Heaven is getting Into The JOY. All the joys of Christmas’s past rolled up together with whipped cream, a cherry, AND sparklers is only a taste of the joys to come for those who love Him. Every day really is “another day closer”, and that’s worth counting down to!

Trash to Treasure

There’s an interesting piece of real estate in California called the Glass Beach. Fort Bragg has been around a while, right on the Pacific Coast. Beginning at least in 1906 through 1967, they did what many towns did. They dumped their trash in a convenient location - the ocean. They were dumping so much out there that sometimes they had to burn it to keep it from blocking the view (I guess). But for 61 years, they had merrily dumped everything they could think of - from household trash to automobiles, including a LOT of glass bottles.
Then the wind and tide got to work.
One day, someone went down to the “Old Dump” to look around, and they noticed that the ‘sand’ on the beach was...colorful. And it still is. It somehow at the same time looks both man-made and natural.
Now my expectation when I first heard of Glass Beach is that it would be much more enjoyable from a safe distance. (I’ve been wrong about other things, too.) One of the pictures I found showed a person walking the beach bare-footed. Sans sandals. Naked toes! Apparently, time and tides not only “...wait for no man.”, they don’t waste their time idly either. They work, tumbling, polishing, shaping, transforming.
Made me think about the Hebrews coming out of Egypt. When they crossed the Red Sea leaving the broken remnants of Pharoah’s mighty army sinking out of sight, they were FREE. After 400 years of slavery, their chains were gone!
At least, the ones they could see.
But they had been dramatically warped by their slavery. Why else would they whine about going back to Egypt every other day? They had a lot of trashy thinking to get over, and it didn’t happen over night. 40 years of wilderness wandering was what it took to transform them from a rag-tag gaggle of discarded junk into a conquering covenant army.
An interesting tid-bit: somebody estimates that it takes 40 years to turn trash glass into Sea Glass, discards and junk into highly collectible treasures. There’s sea glass jewelry, an online magazine, a festival, and lots and lots of collectors that see the beauty and value in what once shared space with old coffee grounds and used diapers.
So the next time you’re wondering why it’s taking so long to get really free from the sins and failures of your past, remember Glass Beach. You didn't get where you were overnight, odds are you won't get over it overnight either. The transformation may take time -and trials - to get there, but it will be beautiful.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 2 Cor. 4:8-10

Cross of Glass

At first, I noticed the colors. White, green, blue, yellow red, orange - even a little pink. They were all shapes and sizes. And then I saw that they were shards of glass, just pieces that had been chosen, sanded a little, and then carefully fit together in the shape of a Cross.
Brokenness made Beautiful.
Our lives, our heart’s desires get broken, shattered into a million pieces by any number of things. Cancer. Divorce. Death. Dementia. Autism. War. Accidents. Sin.
I don’t know what broke you, but I know you’ve been broken. We all have, because that’s what happens to fragile things in this fallen and dangerous world.
When Jesus saw the damages of sin, He didn’t despair. He chose to do something about it.
The Cross.
Those who come to Him with their broken bits of life find Him carefully arranging and fitting them together beautifully, skillfully, Masterfully.
There are some - not me - who hold to Chaos Theory, that order eventually comes out of chaos without an Artist. My experience has been in the opposite direction. Order degenerates into chaos, and left to itself, chaos just increases.
In this life, Chaos is only brought to Order by the Master, and He only does it through the Cross.
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God. 1Cor 1:18

Time Travel

Ecclesiastes 3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:

The Future is something everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whoever he is, whatever he does. CS Lewis
Life's not made up of the breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away.

Time travel is one of the favorite inventions of fiction. Ever since HG Wells' The Time Machine - and probably before - people have been interested in the possibility of jumping into the past to some big event or into the future to see what's going to happen next. Who wouldn't want to be present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, or with the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, or watching the Red Sea part, or Resurrection Morning? That's why I'm sure time travel will remain in the world of fiction. Otherwise, the thousands of significant events of history would have been crowded with on-lookers and sight-seers - and rubberneckers are not known for quietly staying in the background! (Hey, Moses, would you do that again? Everybody smile and wave this time!)
We'd all love to skip some parts of our lives. Dentist visits. Flu. Civics class. Anything painful or boring - or painfully boring - brings up the delicious fantasy of jumping to the end. The movie Click explores that fantasy and its major downside, that life is made up of moments and you never know when you'll find the ones that take your breath away. Take Jacob, for instance.
He was on a journey he didn't want to be on. He was not known for his adventurous spirit or out-doorsy ways, but his mother was concerned that his brother was planning a Cain and Abel reenactment, so she bundled him off for a visit to her old home place. On the way, he camped out at the ruins of a place called Luz, and had a dream: Angels were going up to and coming down from Heaven, and God passed on to him the Promise of Abraham.
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” Genesis 28:16
I don't imagine he was expecting to meet God on this journey. Most of us never do, but the Lord is the Master of perfect timing. Jacob's little vacation was going to be the defining point of his life, because God had a plan. Did you know that when God has a plan, even the apparently insignificant moments of your life - or better yet, the disastrous ones - can be charged with meaning and purpose?
And we know that for those who love God, that is, for those who are called according to his purpose, all things are working together for good. Romans 8:28
I'm not saying (and neither is the Bible) that "there is a reason for everything", or even "it's all going to work out". What the Bible IS saying is that for those who are on HIS side, God is working things out with an eye to Eternity.
He has made everything beautiful in its time...Ecclesiastes 3:11
So? Enjoy the moment, what's about to happen may matter more than you know!

What the Heck is THAT!?

The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. Exodus 16:35
I have known people who always eat the same few things every day. I personally don’t know how they do it. Got to have a little variety, myself.
Well, with enough picante sauce, I can get by, but I don’t think the Israelites had access to jalapeños. Nope, they got Manna - a Hebrew word meaning “What the heck is this?” It appeared every morning like frost and flakes on the ground. (“Frosted Flakes”, pre-Kellog! They were Grrrr-eat!)
It was pretty exciting. They’d go out Sunday through Friday and collect a couple of quarts apiece for their - ahem - daily bread. (Give us this day our daily...you know.) Except on Friday they had to gather twice as much to tide them through the Sabbath. A few lessons were forcefully and vividly imprinted on them through this: God Really Can Provide. Just do a little math. Basically a million people had to get fed every day. How could any human agency provide enough sustenance for so many out of thin air?! In a desert? Only one word for that: Miraculous!
God expects His people to follow His instructions. That’s right, there were rules for His amazing Free Lunch Plan. Gather enough for everybody for the day, use it all or destroy it before morning. If you kept it overnight, it got nasty. Except for Friday night. Then it would still be good for Saturday. Because God said so, that’s why!
What God provides is good. Wafers and honey. That’s what it tasted like. Do an internet search for “perfect food”, and honey is what you find. Biscuits and honey with a dash of cinnamon is hard to beat. This wasn’t skimpy, unpalatable survival fare. They thrived on it. When they weren’t complaining about it.
Whining about God’s provision is never a good idea. Well, duh. But we do it anyway, don’t we? Human nature, I suppose, but our imperfect memories and voracious appetites (lusts) lead us to anguished complaining about the “same old same old”. Which gets us in trouble. Every. Single. Time.
The methods and means may change, but it is still God who provides.
When they got to the Promised Land, the manna stopped. Instead, they got to enjoy the Promise Fulfilled. For generations, they had been dreaming of “a land flowing with milk and honey”. That was the Promise Deferred. When they were ready, God fulfilled it even better than they expected, in ways they never dared to dream.
Here’s a hint for your life. God doesn’t tell you every good thing He has planned. He always has wonderful surprises waiting in the wings. Don’t get so attached to todays blessings that you can’t enjoy tomorrows!
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
Fear not. Faith on!

Shine it up!

Mythbusters did a segment on “Can you polish a poop?” based on a saying they often used around their shop when someone was being too nitpicky about something “You’re just trying to get a shine on that ... “stuff”. They gathered various kinds of “scat” from a local zoo and tried a couple of different techniques without success. Then they learned about the Japanese art of “dorodango” - turning balls of mud into shiny...well...balls. It actually worked! They even geeked out and tested the reflective qualities of their poo-balls with a machine that declared they were indeed 'shiny'.
But it was still poop.
All they did was superficial. It didn’t change anything about the content of their “material”. They were quite thrilled with their results, because they accomplished their goal. I found it fun to watch, even interesting, but I’m happy to say I wasn’t there.
With the smell.
Not to mention the memory of spending that much time up close and personal with something so...personal.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. 2 Cor. 5:17
New car smell is a good smell. Fresh baked bread? Amazing! But what God does in a sinner’s heart is even more amazing. He takes something used, abused, and nasty and makes it NEW. When you put your trust in Christ, it’s like being reborn.
That’s why Jesus told Nicodemus he had to be born again. Nothing else in our experience compares. It's a reboot that makes the hard drive brand spanking new!
And if it doesn’t begin there, all our charities, good works, church attendance, and good intentions are just poop-polishing. No matter what kind of shine we put on the outside, if it doesn’t come from a changed heart, it’s wasted. Not to mention, disgusting!