I have heard God referred to as “The big sky pixie” by a very staunch atheist. He’s not the only one to hold this point of view. Most people don’t think that God is anything more than a nice thought, a good idea, a fairy tale that is about as real as pumpkin coaches and fairy godmothers. They think faith, this religion stuff, this hope is all in our minds, something that we have created and hold onto in order to better cope with the every day horrors of living.
How many times have you ever wished that fairy tales were real? Did you set out cookies and lie in wait for Santa? Did you put your tooth under your pillow and wake up to a shiny new coin? When things were bad, did you close your eyes and wish your fairy godmother might appear and make it all better?
It’s true that we need faith, need hope, need to believe in God to cope with this world. Magic and the mystical experiences are part of human nature, and we crave a power stronger than our own to right all wrongs. Yet many fairy tales, many legends, hold within them a kernel of truth. Fairy godmother’s aren’t real, but lovely old women who happily share help and advice are very real.
God is the greatest fairy godmother ever, and the good news that Jesus brought is the real fairy tale, the one that is true.
Sacrilege! You say, drawing back in horror. How dare you compare the great message of the Bible to trivial little stories? I reply, because they contain the same basic truth.
Well, take a look and you’ll see. Who are the main characters in fairy tales? The Bad Guy (kinda like Satan), the Poor Person Who Needs Help But Can’t Do It Alone (kinda like us), the Hero (aka Jesus), and the Supernatural Helper/Fairy Godmother/Genie (you know, like God, only not quite as powerful).
Let’s look at the pattern, the message, the basic plot. All is well in the happy kingdom, things are good and real estate prices are high. Then, somebody bad comes along and messes stuff up, throwing the formerly happy protagonist into a lot of trouble. The protagonist works hard, tries their best, looks for a solution, but just can’t do it alone. In comes the fairy godmother to give some help and advice, or the hero to save the day by doing daring deeds, or some combination of both. Things are happy again. The prince and princess get married, and they all live happily ever after.
Sound like the Bible yet? There was this garden God made where everything was great, and then it got messed up. Satan played a trick, people made mistakes. Now it’s all messed up, there’s pain and suffering and such. We try to make our lives better, run after all sorts of things to make us happy, fulfill our lives, get back to the way things were in the garden. God gives some Israelites a blueprint for the journey, some guidelines for setting things right again. But they just can’t get it quite right. So God sends Jesus to show us how to get it right and then the Holy Spirit to help us along. Our lives get better, we learn how to get closer to the garden. Jesus breaks open the gates of death and invites anyone who will follow him to escape the curse and come back to the garden. We haven’t reached the end yet, but when it comes everything will be great again. We’ll all live happily ever after.
There’s a reason fairy tales and legends stick around, why we retell them and reshape them to fit our modern culture. The core of the story is the same basic truth we live and breath every day, the story of God’s good then broken world and Jesus who came to set things right.
I love fairy tales, knights in shining armor and stranded princesses. I love Jesus even more. Sometimes, it can be hard to see the difference between fact and fable. After all, we’ve convinced ourselves that the stuff of fairy tales is just that; fiction, something that can never happen. But we still tell the story over and over, we still wish for it to come true.
So what is the Gospel truth, the Good News?
The fairy tale of our lives is true. It has come true, it is coming true right now, and it will come true soon. It’s happening all around us. We’re all living in the biggest, best, most real fairy tale ever.
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