In Search of True Love

Fairytales. Our world is full of them. You can’t really get away from them. Whether they are

the old school tales about princesses and princes finding true love and defeating the forces of evil or modern movies about aliens etc. I know this has been written about and spoken about more times than can be counted but it is something that I am becoming more and more interested in.

Some of my favourites:

The 3 pigs. What an awesome story. The big bad wolf. The silly pigs. The wise pig. And of course the “underpig” wins against all odds.
Then there’s the one about Jake and Beanstalk. Wow talk about and imperfect hero. Jack is both a fool and thief but somehow manages to save not just himself but his family too.

Little Red Riding Hood has to be one of the most bizarre stories ever written. I have a little girl, so I find myself asking this question these days, why is “Red” in the forest alone in the first place?! But the fact that she talks to a wolf and later mistakes this same wolf for her grandmother . . . how?! And then there’s the version where the grandmother and Red are swallowed whole by the wolf and the woodsman cuts it open to release them?! And we read this to our little kids??? Amazing!

Then there’s the story of a boy who is orphaned and left on a distant planet with his uncle. In this story we find the boy growing into his destiny and becoming the one who saves the entire universe of the Empire.*

Also there’s that “not-so-well-known” one about a little hobbit who manage to endure against all odds and save the people of Middle Earth.

Want something newer? In my opinion the best movie of last year was a film called, “Super 8.” It’s the story of a boy who loses his mother in a tragic accident. While trying to get on with his life, he and a group of friends accidentally film a train wreck discover an alien was being transported on the train As the story unfolds we see find that things are not always as they seem.

What is it about these stories that appeal to us so much? Why is it that they endure long after the authors have gone?

While these are just stories they do however point to another story. A story of adventure and rescue. The story of salvation found in the Bible. Yes the Bible is literally filled with stories that are mirrored by so many of these fairytales that we love but ultimately I believe that the Bible is a story in the best sense of word. The underlying story of the Bible is one of true love, of rescue and of the search for a real happy ending.

Maybe we love fairytales because they express something that sometimes we find hard to express. Maybe we love them because they express our of need for true love, and our desperate longing to believe that there is hope in the midst of all the chaos in the world.
Maybe that’s what the teacher in the book of Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has planted eternity in the human heart . . .” There is something inside of us all that longs for more than this life has to offer.

Stories are our way of expressing this idea that we know there is more. That we know true love is to be found. That there is hope. That good does defeat evil. You see fairytales reflect the hope that someone will search for us and save us even when we have been foolish. In fact this is the reason our Prince Charming has come.

I more I listen, the more I like!!

A great CD is defined by one simple fact in my opinion. If the more I listen to it, the more I like it, then for me it is defined as a great album. Its a very personal thing I know. But for me what defines a great album or perhaps even a great band isn’t any of the following, though sometimes they do help;

“It’s an artistic masterpiece.”
“It’s risky and goes where no one else has before. It’s unique.”
“Only music in this genre is worth listening to.”
“It’s cool and hip. All the right people are loving it.” Right People is also an opinion thing if you think about it and depends on where you are coming from.

You see for me at the end of the day what makes an album great is that I enjoy it more today than when I first heard it. I like loads of stuff and to be honest there are albums that I have bought that I loved when I first heard them and I listened to them for awhile but what about now? I have fond memories but seldom actually go back to the whole album and enjoy it.
There are however a handful of albums that I always seem to go back to and can’t get enough of. Over the years the little collection has grown but it also seems harder to get into the group.
I find it interesting that I work that way and I have only recently realized it. In the last month I have discovered a band that would never generally be the sort of thing that I would listen to. I just happened on them. I heard their name and though, “mmmmmm . . . that sounds interesting.” So I fired up Spotify and gave them a listen. At first I though it was okay but not really my thing. Soon though I was listening to it all the time, to the point that I splashed out and downloaded an album and over the last month I have grown to love the CD so much that it has become the default in my car. It’s a great album.

The more I listen the more I like!

That concept fascinates me. I wonder if that is a lesson on how I should live? What I mean is do I impact people more significantly the longer they know me or am I a one hit wonder. Don’t get me wrong I am not interested making everyone happy and being a people pleaser. What I am concerned about is how is my impact defined? Does it have longevity and real lasting effect or is it just a nice warm and fuzzy memory?

Perhaps that is a little bit of what the Bible is getting at in 2 Cor 2:15 - 17,

“In fact, God thinks of us as a perfume that brings Christ to everyone. For people who are being saved, this perfume has a sweet smell and leads them to a better life. But for people who are lost, it has a bad smell and leads them to a horrible death. No one really has what it takes to do this work. A lot of people try to get rich from preaching God's message. But we are God's sincere messengers, and by the power of Christ we speak our message with God as our witness.”

* I have purposefully not mentioned names of bands etc.