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I have always been a romanticist. Perhaps most women are. I love the stories of the prince coming on his white horse to rescue his fair princess. The two fall deeply in love, get married, rule over their kingdom together, and live happily ever after. As a young girl, my heart filled with anticipation and excitement as I dreamed about my own prince coming for me someday.
In all of these stories, the princess engages her heart to her prince, and she follows him in utter devotion. These longings and dreams are so universal throughout history and through every culture that it must be a pattern for what we were created to experience in the beginning, before the fall of man. In other words these stories are a remnant of what God originally created life to be. I think each woman was made to be loved deeply and to feel connected to another with whom she can partner in life and make a mark. We were made for love and to have meaning in our lives.
In a fallen world, where sin, death, and darkness have marred and hidden so many truths that God originally created us to know, we must look for the original patterns and follow diligently after them. I believe the reason so many are captivated by epic stories is because we were made to be a part of great adventure, divine beauty, and magnificent love. In contemporary life, fans are captivated by movies like The Lord of the Rings; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Star Wars; and many more in which good and evil battle for the soul and well-being of a kingdom or people. These stories satisfy a deep place in our hearts, as the protagonists or heroes fight with all their might against evil and great odds and ultimately conquer. The ends of these stories give hope and a pattern of heroism for those of us who long to be part of a grand adventure, who long to live courageously.
Yet these are merely shadows of the biggest and truest epic narrative. The story begins with a great king, our Creator, who made us for his pleasure, giving us a beautiful kingdom in which to live, love, and enjoy life. But a wicked enemy, Satan, comes along, jealously wanting to undermine the loyalty of the King's own children. He deceives them with lies about their King and captures their allegiance. He takes them to his kingdom of darkness to serve him. Yet the righteous King, being noble and perfect in his love, does everything in his power to win back and redeem his lost children—to retrieve them from a kingdom of darkness and bring them home to the kingdom of light, for which they were created. Doing so costs the King the life of his Son, but no sacrifice is too great to bring his children back into his realm.
And so the greatest Prince, Jesus, gave himself so that we might live again with the King. But this noble Prince had power even over death, from a brutal death to celebrate life and be with his beloved children for all eternity.
If we really believed and understood that this is the true story of our lives, then we would look with hope, courage, and deep devotion for the day when all of us will be rescued from this realm of darkness and be restored into his presence. We would also understand that our part in the battle is strategic. Each of as has the ability to bring light, love, beauty, and his presence into every place we go. The interesting thing is that this kingdom of light, though invisible and mysterious and somewhat hidden in this world, already exists today in the spiritual realm. And our King, who is ultimately going to redeem us, is alive and active in our lives and in this world today.
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