Kristen Anne Glover

Five in Tow

{31} Return to Me

31 Days: From Enemy to Heir

Return to Me: Day 31 of 31 Days (lalalalala!)

For Day 1, Click on the image above

When Jewel woke from her groggy haze, she saw the imposing castle looming before her eyes.  The beautiful home she had shared with her prince was terrifying.  It stood for perfection and holiness, and she was returning to its sacred halls as a ruined bride, clothed in the wedding dress she had defiled.

“I can’t go back there!” she cried.

“Jewel, you must go back.”

“But I am ruined!”

“Even more reason to return to the place where you can be restored.  Why would you resist his love when you need it most?”

She was sick with dread.  She had not considered what it would be like to return to her prince, covered in filth from the Enchanter’s kingdom, because she had not considered that she might be wrong.

Now her Advocate was leading her right through the gates, right past the sturdy walls where her betrayal was set in motion.

“Just put me down somewhere,” she pleaded, “anywhere.”  She remembered her life in the shadows, when Obscurity ruled in Jewel’s place, and she longed for some of the old, comfortable anonymity.  She thought if she could live on the fringes, tucked somewhere in the prince’s kingdom away from his gaze, she could yet survive the knowledge that she had failed him.

“Jewel, the anecdote for the Enchanter’s spell is the prince’s love.  Do not shrink from him now.  Do not let the Enchanter have that final victory.  The shame you want to wear like a covering for your nakedness is no substitute for the covering that awaits you in him.  This is where you must trust him the most.  Now, let’s go greet him.”

That’s when Jewel noticed the obvious.  She was so intoxicated by her own misery, she had not been aware of the flowing banners and abundant flowers.  She had not seen the velvet runner and the colorful flags.  Her prince had returned. 

“He is here?” she gasped.

“He returned while you were away.”

It was worse than she could have imagined.  While she was away, her prince had returned to find her absent.  Her prince had returned to find her, not waiting, but wandering into the far reaches of enemy territory.  She had no time to clean up before he saw her, no time to make amends and prove her penitence.  He would see her exactly as she was. 

She wished her Advocate had a slower gait, or that the walk through the village was longer, or that she could command the earth to open up and swallow her whole.  She had not felt this disgusted with herself when the prince rescued her from the mud because she had not known him before.

She did not have the same excuse this time.  This time, she had gone willingly.  She had betrayed him when she knew him.

Just then, her thoughts were interrupted.  They were not even half-way up the path when she heard his voice.  “Jewel!  Jewel!  You have returned to me!  Everyone, she’s here!  My bride is here!”  She saw him running, royal robes flashing, to embrace her.  Great, joyful tears welled up in his eyes.  “You have returned to me.”

Return to Me

Return to Me

The people of the kingdom rushed out of houses and shops at the sound of their prince’s voice.  They gathered around Jewel in stunned silence.  They were shocked by her appearance.  It was not hard to tell where she had been.  Some looked away, embarrassed for her.

The prince was not one of them.  He clapped his adviser on the back.  “Well done,” he said, “very well done.”  The adviser bowed slightly.

The prince turned to his bride, beaming.  “I am so happy to have you back.” 

Jewel did not know what to say.  Her infidelity blazed on her cheeks.  “I am so sorry,” she stammered.

“Your Advocate has already told me, and I am glad.  I can do something with ‘sorry,’ remember, Jewel?”

“But I took your riches for granted and I used the beauty you gave me to lead your people right over to the Enchanter’s kingdom.  And I went there myself, looking for the ill-gotten riches of my old life.  Only they weren’t there because they weren’t real, and now I have nothing to show you but the dirty rags I have made of the wedding dress you gave me.”

“Come here,” he said, but even as he said it, he moved to her as if he knew her feet were rooted to the ground and could not move.  Then he spread out the corner of his royal robe over her filthy wedding dress.  The rich purple of princely garments reached around her, wrapping her in radiance.  Her guilty rags were completely covered.

Wonderstruck whispers rippled through the throng.

“All along, your beauty was found in me.  You were rich because I am rich.  That goodness you saw in the mirror was my goodness at work in you, Jewel.  It was not your own, as you supposed it to be.  Apart from me, you are nothing.  That’s why your excursion to the Enchanter’s kingdom was in vain.”

Jewel studied her feet.

“Neither can you take anything from me, Jewel.  You cannot shame me.  Your ugliness can never mar my beauty or my goodness.  I have enough beauty and goodness to cover it all, and I have covered it.” 

“But you are just, too.  Not just beautiful and good.  How can you take me back, as if what I did was of no consequence?”

The prince’s face grew serious.  “Well, there are consequences, Jewel, and there was a punishment.  You could not have borne up under the punishment, so I took that for you.”  He turned his back to her, and Jewel saw for the first time the fierce marks of dragon claws and the brutal scars where fire licked his flesh.

Tears flooded her eyes.

“As for consequences, well, you could have been living richly this entire time, Jewel, but you chose poverty instead.  I think you can see the consequence in that.”

Jewel nodded, sober and heartbroken.

“But Jewel, return to me, and I will sweep your offenses away like a cloud.  I will clothe you with new garments, and I will love you with an everlasting love.  For I am gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love, and relenting of evil.  You have tasted my mercy.  Now drink of my grace.”

She fell into his arms then, and the people erupted with shouts of praise.  Only their prince could take a story so hopeless and make it glorious with grace.  Only their prince could take a twisted, sorted tale and turn it into a Happily Ever After. 

THE END
*Only, this is not the end, not really.  This series will be published in its entirety in e-book format for easy printing or reading on electronic devices.  The e-book will included bonus content, including study questions and Scripture references.  For updates, please follow me on Facebook or Twitter, or subscribe by e-mail.

30 Days to Enjoying Your Children More: Forgiveness {Day 5}

Looking for the beginning of the series? Click here!

It was not the best day to go to the pumpkin patch.  The clouds hung like furrowed brows over the sullen fields.  Everything was brown, except the things that were gray, and anything that wasn’t gray was about to be because it looked like rain.

But it wasn’t raining yet, and you can’t very well stay home on a chance of rain when you live in the Pacific Northwest or you’d never go anywhere.  Besides, I wanted to fill our Saturdays with memorable activities to help pass the months while my husband was away on Army duty.

Despite the chill in the air, the kids and I donned our fleece jackets and boots and headed off.  All of us were happy to muck about in the fields and look for the craziest pumpkin.  All but one child.  One child did not want to go to the pumpkin patch, or watch cannons shoot pumpkins into the woods, or go on a hay ride.  One child chose to be sullen and mean like the clouds over the field.  One child rained all over our fun family outing.

I was not prepared for that kind of weather.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if I wasn’t trying so hard to make sure my children were happy and well-loved during their father’s absence.  This child was fighting against all the good I had planned for them, and it hurt.

That night, after I put the kids to bed and the house was finally still, I shut myself in to the bathroom and succumbed to the heaviness of my heart.  I felt sad and wounded.  The evidence of ugliness lingered, like a bruise on my skin.

I turned the water as hot as it would go and stepped into the shower.  It’s easier to think in the shower, and to cry.  Words tumbled out into the water, words of sorrow over these sins lurking in such a young heart.  It seemed silly at first, like it shouldn’t have mattered as much as it did.  Kids do stuff like that.  I was probably being too sensitive.

But that childish choice had brought a division into our home.  It had taken the beauty of the day and marred the fellowship we shared.   It stood between my own child and me and threatened the closeness we enjoyed.  It wasn’t just immaturity.  It was sin, and I hated that it was here, in my home, in my child.  In me.

It was the same old struggle in new flesh.  How I wish I could have spared him from this awful inheritance!

So there, in my little earthly temple, I pleaded to God for forgiveness for the one whose heart had been so hard that day.  “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy…”

The bitterness of the day vanished.  I found myself called to the place of Christ, not as a servant, but as a faithful high priest, earnestly interceding to God on behalf of my children.  It was as if I was standing in the gap between my children and God, clothed in Christ, asking for forgiveness for their weaknesses.  In the pattern of Christ, who prays for me, I prayed for my children as one who understands them and loves them.  I know them because they are mine.

It is an awesome thing to be a kingdom of priests, and nowhere is the reality of that calling more pronounced than when I come before the throne of God on behalf of my covenant child.  How I understand their weaknesses!  How I desire for their good, for their reconciliation to their Father!  When I grieve for the sins of my children, who often are unable yet to grieve for them themselves, it moves the heart of God.

It moves mine as well.  It is difficult to enjoy a child who hurts, offends, and disobeys.  It is hard to want to be around a child who selfishly ruins a perfectly good day by his actions or attitudes.  Even a very small person can inflict a great deal of pain.

But when I take on a ministry of reconciliation and stand in as a priest for my children, I am reminded that their offenses—as hurtful or annoying as they may be to me— are ultimately sins against God.  They are not just childish rebellions to be dismissed.  They are real sins with eternal consequences.   When my toddler refuses to obey, it is sin.  When my daughter treats her siblings harshly, it is sin.  When my son lies, it is sin.

What an awful reality.  Speaking the truth of it back to God and asking for forgiveness acknowledges the fact that my children are sinners in need of repentance.  Hearing the words spoken brings my awareness into the situation.  I cannot ignore their weaknesses when I am confessing them aloud.

It is a truth that turns my heart for my children back to God and renews my purpose to teach and train them in the way they should go because I know the consequences of sin.  I am weak!  I am prone to wander just as they are.  I see their weakness and I have compassion on them.  I understand.

But I also know the solution to the problem.  That is the beauty of the priestly role.  It allows me the opportunity to point my children to Christ, the true High Priest, the true Sacrifice.  Struggling with my children’s sin is one of the hardest parts of parenting.  But leading them to the Source of all forgiveness is truly the greatest joy.

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake.
1 John 2:12

Thank you for reading!  Please join us tomorrow for Day 6: Discipline. 

For further thought

1) Have you thought about yourself as a priest as we are called in 1 Peter 1:9?  Why or why not?

2) How is your role as a priest different than Christ’s role as a priest?  How is it similar?  See Hebrews 4:14-5:10.

3) Can you have a ministry of reconciliation in your home if you are harboring bitterness or taking offense at the sins of your children?  How can t help to recognize that their sins are ultimately sins against God?