The End of the Story

A few years ago, I bought my daughter a Disney fairytale CD with the story of Snow White.  You all know the story of Snow White.  She’s described as the fairest in all the land but the evil queen wants to be known as the fairest, so she concocts a plot to kill Snow White.  Fortunately, she doesn’t succeed & Snow White goes to live in the forest with the seven dwarves.  While there, the queen disguises herself as an old woman and brings her an apple.  Snow White takes a bite of the apple and falls into a deep sleep until Prince Charming awakens her with true love’s first kiss. 

The CD gets very sinister when the old lady old lady arrives on the scene.  The music drops low and slows down.  The woman’s voice is very evil and conniving.  You get this foreboding sense that something bad is about to happen.  And every single time that part came on, my daughter would cover her ears, close her eyes and beg me to fast forward past the “scary part”. 

It got so bad that I asked her one day, “Why do you want me to fast forward this part?”

“It’s scary,” she said, “and I’m afraid of the evil queen.” 

“What happens after the evil queen comes,” I asked her.

“After the evil queen comes and gives her the apple,” she recounted, “she falls asleep.  Then, “she continued, “Prince Charming comes and kisses her.  She wakes up and they live happily ever after.”

“Does that ever change?” I asked her.  “No Momma,” she replied quietly.

“So why are you afraid?  You already know the end of the story.  You already know what’s going to happen.  You already know that, in the end, Snow White wins.” 

God showed me that oftentimes, we as adults are like my daughter.  There is something that scares us.  There’s a foreboding sense around us.  We sense evil and we get afraid.  But listen, we know the end of the story.  All throughout the Bible, God tells us that we win!  He will defeat evil.  We know that the enemy who rules this world prowls back and forth – we know his end is coming.  And we know that he will be defeated. And we know that God has given us his true love that rescues us from that evil. 

It’s funny.  Now, when we listen to the CD, my daughter’s first instinct is to fast forward to the part with the evil queen. 

And I reassure her – I say, think about the end of the story – it will help you get through that fear. 

I think this is a lesson that we can learn too.  When you’re going through storms and temptations – think about the end of the story.  Think about the victory that Jesus has already secured for us on the cross.  And I’m going to tell you something else – we have an advantage over Snow White.  Snow White had to go through that alone but we are never alone. 

We have our victor who travels with us throughout our story and that is what gives us hope.