A Thought About The Real World

The story of Cinderella was a favourite of mine as a child....ok maybe it is still my favourite. You know how the story goes. The handsome prince decides to marry and invites all the young girls to attend a grand ball in his honor. On the night of the ball Cinderella’s cruel stepsisters prevent her from attending and she is crushed.

Her fairy godmother appears out of nowhere and with a wave of her magic wand transforms Cinderella into the most beautiful princess ever. Cinderella is then whisked off to the ball where she meets her Prince Charming and it is love at first sight. Then of course through a series of events and a relentless search for his true love they are once again reunited and live happily ever after.

Wonderful isn’t it? If only life could be like that.  However, happily ever after really is the stuff that only fairly tales are made of, and although we wish it was, real life is nothing like a fairytale.
God is not a fairy godmother. He doesn’t wave his magic wand and make all our troubles disappear. The problem for me and for others is that sometimes what we expect, and what God has planned for us, are two totally different things.


I once heard a story about  a young girl named Elizabeth who grew up having two sorrows.  The first sorrow was that her hair was black and straight, when all the popular girls wore golden curls.  The second sorrow was that while all her friends kept growing she ended up remaining short. Years later God called Elizabeth to the mission field in China. As she stood looking at the people to whom God had called her to minister, two things became very apparent to her. First, that each and everyone of them had long, straight black hair. Secondly, each and every one of them was short, just like her. It was then that she bowed her head and prayed "Thank you God, you really do know what you are doing."

Sometimes we think that we know what is best for ourselves, but God has a much higher and better purpose for each and every one of us. He longs to give us the desires of our heart. We just need to trust that he knows better than we do what those desires really are and what we need in order to fulfill his purposes in our lives. As I have said before, the only thing more painful than not getting your own way, is getting exactly what you want and it not be part of God's plan for you.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28