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A Cinderella Story
The term “Cinderella” is being spoken again as the collegiate basketball season enters its final days. The schedule for the NCAA tournament has been announced, and speculation has been frantic as to who will become the new champion. “March Madness” is what it’s called, and for good reason. In the next few days, dreams will be shattered for most, and out of the rubble will emerge the new conquerors. “Cinderella” in this context refers to teams who are given little change of winning any games, let alone the championship. But every year, there seems to be two or three teams that pull major upsets, attracting tons of attention to their small and overlooked programs.
Most of us don’t expect to ever wear glass slippers. We know our lot in life and have come to accept it. To dream of something better is simply that — a dream. We have convinced ourselves that it’s best to just trudge on and expect little. The Bible, however, tells of an exciting story that is true and that involves us. He, for some inexplicable reason, took an interest in us and offered us the fantasy of living with him. But the most amazing part of the story, perhaps, is that so few take him up on his offer.
An early version of this wonderful story was told in Ezekiel 16. God spoke of himself as a traveler who happened to find an abandoned baby: “As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in the water to cleanse…No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field…” (vv. 4-5).
The “baby” was referring to the nation of Israel, and according to this analogy, had been cast off as undesirable…a reference to the early years of Egyptian slavery. Like Cinderella who served a wicked stepmother, Israel had little hope of finding happiness in life — of even surviving. God, however, changed all of that: “And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful” (vv. 6-7). God provided all the resources and love that Israel had lacked. Because of his grace, she grew to be a powerful and glorious nation. It was all due to the King who pitied her in her desperate condition.
But it’s not just a historical oddity: it’s also a present promise. God took on flesh and came down to earth of the purpose of raising us out of our hopeless condition. Because he loved us, we were given an incredible opportunity to move out of the slums of sin into the palace of purity. Paul described it with these words: “For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: for peradventure for the good man someone would even dare to die. But God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5.6-8). Note that little word “us” in that passage. It’s a word that means you and I are both included. Anyone who reads or hears that passage is included. The King has come and has invited us to move into his heavenly palace.
Why would anyone refuse such an invitation as this? The main reason is stated in 2 Corinthians 4.3-4: “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
There’s an evil figure in our story, too, one far worse than even Cinderella’s stepmother. Satan, the “god of this age,” does everything within his power to pull us away from the Savior King. He wants to see us destroyed. Israel forgot God’s goodness to her and her “roots” (Ezekiel 16.22). Will you and I?
Continue reading the sad story of Israel and of her end in Ezekiel 16. Will this be how we end up? There’s no magic required to rise from our ashes (cinders). The grace and love of God is ready to provide the lift we need. It’s the message we’ve often heard: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3.16). “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And he that heareth, let him say, ‘Come.’ And he that is athirst, let him come: he that will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22.17). What will we say to such an invitation.
