My first-grade daughter recently wrote and illustrated her first picture book, The Princess and the Prince, and encouraged me to read it the other day.
She was very proud of herself--she had constructed it using several sheets of printer paper, folded in half and stapled together (opening right-to-left), and wrote it in manuscript with a pencil. On several pages, she illustrated scenes using fine-tipped Crayola markers.
As you can imagine, for me as her mother and teacher, it is an absolute treasure. I am not embarrassed to admit that I teared up when I read it, but not for the reasons you might think.
You see, although it is very touching to read anything my daughter--or any of my children, for that matter--writes, and although I love the creativity she expresses through her words and artwork, I teared up because her story really hearkens back to the story.
Her story is really the gospel story, through and through. You see, in her story, she writes about a prince and a princess. The prince was a brave knight. In fact, as she points out, he was the only brave knight.
And this prince falls in love with a princess who--and I just love this detail--is a slave.
She "worked and worked" and was to be pitied, for although she was beautiful, she was indeed a slave.
And so, in the following pages, she writes about how the prince sees the slave princess, and they fall in love at first sight, however, she is suddenly taken away by a fierce dragon. This, of course, saddens the prince, who ties his horse up and talks to the king about it. The king immediately encourages the prince to go after the princess, and the prince goes on to bravely slay the dragon. By so doing, he rescues the princess, and takes her to his home where they are married and live in happiness.
What a beautiful picture of the gospel, is it not?!
Christ, the brave knight/prince, at the command of His father, the King of all Kings, comes to the rescue of us slaves, who are to be pitied and have no hope apart from Him. And Christ comes to do battle with the Dragon, putting him to shame as He dies on the cross and rises to new life from the grave, conquering sin and death once-and-for-all on our behalf. One day, He will come again to put a final end to the Dragon and bring us, the Church, His bride, to the place He has been preparing for us, to live eternally with Him in happiness.
What a love story! THE love story, the only story that will ever matter, for any of us, for all time!
And I love how, even at age seven, my daughter gets it. Oh, I am sure she has not connected all the dots yet! She has MUCH to learn about the Bible, about salvation, grace, repentance, justification, sanctification, glorification, and on and on and on.
Oh, but at its core, she understands this beautiful gospel love story of the Bible, the over-arching, meta-narrative of the Scriptures:
A Prince has come, at the request of the King, to slay the Dragon and rescue the slave princess, to be His bride, to spend eternal bliss with Him. (see Rev 12:9, 19:6-9)
Now I must ask: do you know this story, dear friend? Do you see yourself in it? Do you experience the love and hope this story illustrates in your day-to-day life? Oh, I hope that you do, and if not, that you would soon, dear one! Will you reach out today to learn more? Will you find resources within the posts of this blog, within the pages of Scripture, at your local church, and through so many of the believers around you? I pray you would be strengthened, encouraged, and refreshed, dear one, as you bask in the glory of the greatest story that has ever been told today!
(**For a great resource for kids pertaining to this same theme, be sure to check out this book, The Biggest Story: How the Snake Crusher Brings Us Back to the Garden by Kevin DeYoung)
No comments