I started reading one of my childhood favorites this morning, a novel by George MacDonald called The Princess and the Goblin. He opens the book with the following dialogue between him and his reader:
“But, Mr. Author, why do you always write about princesses?”
“Because every little girl is a princess".”
“You will make them vain if you tell them that".”
“Not if they understand what I mean.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“What do you mean by a princess?”
“The daughter of a king.”
“Very well, then, every little girl is a princess, and there would be no need to say anything about it, except that she is always in danger of forgetting her rank, and, behaving as if she had grown out of the mud. I have seen little princesses behave like the children of thieves and lying beggars, and that is why they need to be told they are princesses. And that is why, when I tell a story of this kind, I like to tell it about a princess. Then I can say better what I mean, because I can then give her every beautiful thing I want her to have.” (my emphasis)
MadDonald writes about princesses because little girls have a tendency to forget who they are and who their father is. This is so true with the believer in Jesus Christ! How often we forget who we are and Who our Father is! We are reminded constantly in the Bible of our standing in Christ, who we once were and no longer are, who we are now, and what Christ is making us to me. We are to lay aside the “old self” and put on the “new self” (Col 3:10, Eph 4:22, 24), we are adopted children of God (Romans 8:15, Eph 1:5), and we are to live as Christ by “clothing ourselves with Him” (Romans 13:14). In short, we are to be and act like children of God because He has made us His children in Christ Jesus. Living in this knowledge transforms our behavior. Am I acting like a son of the good and perfect Father (James 1:17)?
It reminds me of something Lewis wrote of “an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”
What am I doing in the mud?
