Life--a Fairytale?

Tuesday August 23, 2011

“Every man’s life is a fairytale written by God’s fingers.” (Hans Christian Andersen)

I’d expect nothing less from the man who wrote The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, and The Princess and the Pea. A romantic at heart, I fell in love with this quote.

As I considered writing a post with this quote, the more I thought, the more I doubted the fairytale aspect of life. After all, life is hard; it’s a series of ups and downs, and sometimes the downs seem to outnumber the ups. And some people seem to have such a hard time with life. Does Andersen’s quote imply that life is easy, sunny, and ends happily?

But remember those fairy tales? They’re full of ups and downs; all is not well in fairy land. There are monsters and witches lurking behind every bush, it seems. There is, however, that happy ending.

While thoughts of posting and fairytales were swimming in my head, I was catching up on my reading and found the greatest quote in Christianity Today. In the July 2011 issue, there’s a review written by Andy Crouch of a new book called The Social Animal. After reading it, I’m convinced this book isn’t for me, but Crouch’s review took me on quite a journey. One passage jumped out at me. In speaking of grace, Crouch wrote:

“…a broken cosmos rescued and redeemed, oriented towards a final tableau of awed and grateful worship, bright shining as the love that moves the sun and the other stars.”

It does sound like a fairytale, doesn’t it? But it’s truer than true—the ultimate reality. Our cosmos is broken and we are moving toward rescue and redemption, toward that moment of awe-filled worship when our love will merge with His and shine bright.

Yes, life is hard on us, day after day. But if we remember (as I mentioned yesterday), it’s not about us; it’s about what He does through us, for Him, the fog clears a bit and the true tale rings truer than ever.


Linking up with Jen at Finding Heaven Today for Soli deo Gloria. Click on over and come along with us!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, Laura. You know how desperately I am craving that fairy tale ending, but your reiteration of your last post -- everything to His glory -- creates peace in my heart.

Unknown said...

amen, sister.

GLENDA CHILDERS said...

We do get to "all live happily ever after." :-)

Fondly,
Glenda

Susan DiMickele said...

It's not about us. Yet God gives us everything, doesn't he?

Good to be back Laura and hanging out on your blog!

Jean Wise said...

One of my favorite sayings and you certainly wrote many wise words reflecting upon that statement!

alicia said...

Laura, this is so what I needed- and am finding is a theme today. Great words!

HopeUnbroken said...

"moving toward rescue and redemption". . . and looking forward to that day!
thank you for the inspiring write.

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