Kristen Anne Glover

Five in Tow

{8} The Long Road Back

31 Days: From Enemy to Heir

Day 8 of 31 Days.  For Day 1, please click on the graphic above.

The prince lifted Obscurity out of the mud and placed her on his horse.  He walked ahead, leading the horse safely over the treacherous road.

Later, when Obscurity recalled the story of how she came to live in the prince’s kingdom, she found it hard to explain this part of her journey.  It was all at once the longest and the shortest road she had ever traveled.

All the way, the prince led her, singing softly over her when she was tired, and speaking truth to her when she was awake.

With each word he spoke, he became more and more lovely until she could hardly believe she had once been revolted by his appearance.  It was as if his face was changing right before her eyes.

How unlike the Enchanter he was!  The Enchanter’s beauty faded with truth; the prince’s deepened.  The more she knew of the prince, the more she wanted to know.

The sky lightened, the shadows slunk away, and her eyes began to see with agonizing clarity.

But the more she saw of the prince’s beauty, the more she recognized her own ugliness.  Obscurity felt she was seeing herself for the very first time, and she was stunned by the reflection.  As much as a failure as she was, she had still believed herself to be beautiful, at least in some small ways.

The light revealed a much different picture.  She was filthy all over.  The clothes she wore with haughty pride were nothing but rags.  She was broken, vile, and disgusting.  She was a stranger and enemy of the prince, and when she looked at him, she was so ashamed of the contrast she wanted to retreat back down the road and into the shadows again.

The Long Road Back

And yet he had reached down in the mud for her, knowing how repulsive she was, and carried her in his own arms when she could not even stand long enough to help herself.

Fresh sobs gripped her.

“Why are you crying?” he asked.

“Because I am so ugly,” she cried.

The prince stopped the horse.  “Who has made you feel ugly?”

“Well, you, I guess.”  It seemed the wrong thing to say, but she hadn’t felt this shame until she met him, so who else could it be?

“No, Obscurity.  Not me.  A woman who was dead and now lives is not ugly to me.”

“But I am ugly!  You can’t pretend that you don’t find me repulsive.”

“I find you in need of rescuing.”

“But I am so unworthy.  I want to hide!”

“Then you have fallen for the lie, and he has won.”

Obscurity wiped her eyes and looked at the prince.  She was so tired of lies.  Her entire life was one big lie, and here she was, tangled up in another one just as soon as she had gotten half-way free.

“He is pursuing you, Obscurity, even now.  He always will, because he hates me.”

Obscurity looked behind her quickly.  But the road was empty.

“He will do anything he can to turn you away from me.  If he can keep you hiding in a corner of my kingdom, he will.  And if he can’t get you to serve him, he’ll have you serve yourself.”

Obscurity felt sick with confusion.  She didn’t understand any of it, except for that last bit.  The prince was certainly wrong about that.

“I am not serving him, and I most certainly am not serving myself!” she cried out.  “I hate myself!”

“That is exactly the problem.  You are turning inward, looking for some sort of worth in yourself.  But there isn’t any, is there?  And because you come up lacking you feel ashamed.  You pity yourself.  ‘Poor Obscurity.  She is such a dirty mess.’  You feel worse about it than ever because now, you know what clean is, and you are far from clean.

“But I am telling you, Obscurity, I did not save you because you were clean.  I saved you in spite of your filth.  And if you begin now to look for some reason for your salvation other than my goodness then you are giving something to the Enchanter that only belongs to me.  I rescued you because I am good, not because you are.  You deserve none of that glory.  So do not take it, either by pride or by shame.”

The prince’s words were sharp, as if he was speaking to the Enchanter himself, and Obscurity held her breath because she dared not breathe.

“You can run and hide in your shame but if you do, know that he has won.”

“No,” Obscurity begged, hiding her face in her hands because she could not look at him anymore.  “I don’t want him to win.  I am sorry, please, I am.”  She paused, trying desperately to figure out the words in her head before she spoke.  “Only, I don’t know what to do with all this.” She spread out her hands over her filthy dress and mud-caked feet.  “I don’t know what to do with it.”

“Let your dirt and your filth be the reason you run to me.  Don’t you see?  Being sorry is a very different thing from being ashamed.  Being sorry turns your eyes toward me, and away from him.  Because he can’t do anything with ‘sorry.’  But I can.  Let me.”

Obscurity nodded through her tears and felt the prince’s arms enfold her to himself.

“Remember what I said when I found you?” the prince asked when she had quieted.

“You said, ‘Come.’”

“Yes, and now we have come through the hardest part of the journey.  It has been a long road back.  But we are here.”

Obscurity looked up.  Above her loomed the massive gates to the kingdom, and the prince’s hand was already on the door.

*The story continues tomorrow with Day 9.  Please join us!

{7} Ephesians 2:13

Ephesians 2:13,19

Day 7 of 31 Days: From Enemy to Heir

To find the beginning of the story, click here.

Every seventh day during the 31 Days challenge, we will take a Sabbath rest from the story and turn our eyes back to the Scriptures from which it was shamelessly plagiarized.  It is my desire that we take these days to think about and pray over the passages I have highlighted.  If you are reading this series to your children, read these passages too.  You might be amazed at how well your children put the pieces together!

My kids, who have started to expect a new chapter as part of their bedtime routine (they get the privileged of hearing it before all of you), were a little disappointed that today’s “chapter” was just a verse.

Then they read Ephesians 2:13 and 19.

“Wow, Mom,” Jonathan said.  “That is just perfect for our story!”

Yes, it is.  He will learn what plagiarism means later.  For now, it is enough that he knows that his mom did not just make this story up.  God wrote it first.

If you have some time today, you might also want to compare the story with what you know about salvation.  Here are some questions to get you started:

1) In what ways are you like Obscurity?

2) Why was the Enchanter described as beautiful, but the prince as plain?  Can you think of some Scriptures to back up your answer?

3) How does the prince fit your understanding of Jesus?

4) From Enemy to Heir is the story of salvation, and beyond.  Have you felt Jesus calling for you to come?  How have you responded?  If you have not accepted His invitation, why are you resisting?  What fears do you have that keep you from running into His arms?

5) If you have been rescued by the Prince, tell someone.  Read this series with your children or with a friend and tell them about the One who saved you from a life of obscurity.  Because this is not just any story.  This is your story.

Tell it.

*The story continues tomorrow with Day 8. 

{5} A Rescuer

31 Days: From Enemy to Heir

Day 5 of our 31 Days series: From Enemy to Heir
Click on the image above to begin at Day 1

Obscurity did not expect to open her eyes again.  She had always feared death until that very moment when she realized it was winning the chase.

That is when she saw the good of it.  She would simply close her eyes and cease to exist.  Where was the fear in that?  The pain would disappear, along with the failure, the torment, and the heartbreak.  She would slip quietly from obscurity into oblivion.

It was a small step to make for someone who had been nearly dead her entire life.

But pain woke her.  Her body screamed.  She was dead.  But she wasn’t.

Slowly, her mind woke to the betrayal.  Where was death?  Where was the oblivion she had been promised?

She had failed.  That was all there was to it.  She had failed to end it all.  Even when she was handed the opportunity, she had messed it up, just like always.

Bitter tears welled up inside her and she groaned because it was not over, it was just worse than ever.

Then a thought came to her, like a whisper in her ear.  There was still a chance she could succeed, and quickly.  Surely there was a sharp rock or a poisonous plant somewhere nearby.  She knew she had the courage to do it, if only she could find the right tool.

Obscurity forced her swollen eyes open to look around, and gasped.

A man was leaning over her.   

He spread his shadow over her while the rising sun, already scorching, burned a halo around his head.  “What has happened to you?  Are you injured?”  His face creased with the weight of concern.

She crouched back, searching her mind to see if she knew him.  She felt that she should, if she could just think.  Something about him seemed so familiar.

The man was dressed like a beggar, but his face, though plain, was not marred like one.  He had none of the brutal marks that came with living in a land of dragons.

I should know him.  I should know him, her mind insisted.  But it could not come up with the secret.

The Rescuer

“Please, come with me,” he was saying.  “I can help you if you come back with me.”

Those words snapped her back into the present.  “Come back with you where?”  she sputtered.

“To my kingdom,” he said, as if surprised by the question.  “I am the prince.” 

The power of his name threw her back into the shadows and she screamed.  Senseless with panic, she scrambled to get away from him, wishing more than ever that she had not survived the night.

She did not fear death, but she feared life with the prince more than anything in the world.

In all of her worst nightmares, she had never expected to be staring into the face of the one who desired to enslave her.  But here he was, plain-faced and pathetic, sneaking in when she was at her weakest.  It was just like the Enchanter had always said.

He thought he could take her without a fight, she thought.  But Obscurity was nothing if not free, and she had just enough stubborn will left to resist the prince’s powers.

Like a wild, injured animal, Obscurity flung herself at the prince.  But either her injuries had left her weaker than she knew or the prince was stronger than he appeared.

She could not prevail against him.

And he would not be dissuaded from trying to help her.  “You will die if you stay here,” he said, holding her wrists so she could not beat him with her fists.

“What if I do?” she screamed.  “It would be better for me to die!”

“Better if you die?” the prince repeated, softly and sadly.  She did not understand the look on his face.  What did he care if she died?

“What a waste of a precious life,” he said, and she cried out at the words because they stung like slap.

No one had ever spoken to her like that, and it hurt worse than a punch to the face.

Long ago, when her memories where still forming, Obscurity remembered being precious to someone.  But it didn’t last because hers was not a precious life.

She swallowed the aching feeling in her throat.  “Let me go,” she demanded, though she did not expect her captor to comply.

He dropped her arms.

It shocked her so much she did not even think to run.  Truth flashed before her eyes and for the very first time in her life, she began to see through the cracks in the Enchanter’s lies.

He was not a captor at all, but a rescuer.  And she, of all people, needed a rescuer. 

*Join us tomorrow for Day 6!