I have never outgrown "happily ever after." Fairy tales live in my head and heart and to this day I want the story to end well. No angst ridden endings with issues left unresolved for this girl. I confess, if it looks like the story is heading in that direction I go straight to the back of the book. I'm not reading it if my favorite character isn't riding off into the sunset with Prince Charming on his perfect white horse.
Life has put a bit of a tarnish on my bright shiny idea of "happily ever after". I've been knocked around by circumstances that fly in the face of all my best laid plans.
I've been reading slowly through the Old Testament - stepping inside the old stories and trying to put myself in the place of some of the people who populated them. Joseph is one of my favorites. He had great dreams of what his life would look like, but sharing them with his older brothers proved to be his undoing. Circumstances beyond his control took his life in a direction he never anticipated. It all worked out in the end, but oh the heartache in the meantime.
I am captivated by the truth that the great Author wrote the story of my life long before I was ever born. He has a way with words, and surely hasn't made any errors in the writing. I was delighted with the early pages, but as I have gone deeper into my life story the chapters have gotten weighty.
Like a bossy little editor, I want to make some changes because things are not going according to plan. There are whole chunks that I want to delete and so much I want to add. I stand with my critical feet planted in my "happily ever after" and beg for change.
What parts would Joseph have edited in his story? When he came to the end of his life and read the final chapter he looked back and saw the way it all fit together. Had he crossed out the part about being sold into slavery, or the one about being falsely accused and thrown into prison, he, his family, and a whole nation would have perished in the devastating famine. His story was perfectly written just as it was.
As is mine - and yours. We can't skip to the end of the book and see how it all ends, but we can lean into the One who has written it all and know it will be good. And do you know another wonderful thing - some day the Prince really will come. He will be riding a perfect white horse - and we who are His will all live with Him ....."Happily ever after."
"Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them."
Psalm 139:16
Blessings,
Linda
