The King Rescues

         Once upon a time, there was a girl. She lived in the darkest place—a dungeon. She was trapped there, her feet chained in shackles. She had been there so long she couldn’t even remember her life before. Other people used to live in the dungeon with her. She watched some of them die. A few of the prisoners learned how to escape this dark place and they left her behind. She begged them to take her along, but they said they could not. Her shackles were still clamped around her ankles. 

 The girl was alone. Everything was dark and everyone she had known had left her. She had heard of fairy tales. Yes, she knew of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. But the girl thought to herself, I am not a princess. And when you’re not a princess, you have to rescue yourself. No prince was coming.

The girl took rocks from the floor and banged them on her shackles, trying to break them. She tried pulling the chains from the wall. Nothing worked. She was far too weak. Frustrated, she cried. She cried every day and every night. She thought I will die in this dark place.

Just as she was as cold as an iceberg, when she was as broken as egg shells, when she was so very tired of trying to break free, a message appeared. In truth, it had always been there.

An itty bitty ray of light streamed into the dungeon, and she saw the letters. Carved into one of the stone walls that tethered her shackles were some words.

Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be discouraged, for I am your King. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

Something tugged at her soul. The King. The King. There is a King. The girl touched the words and rubbed the grime away with her fingers. She also wiped a nearby stone clean and found a different message etched upon it.

  The King is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. A righteous person may have many troubles, but the King comes to the rescue each time.

The King will rescue me.

 The harder she looked, the more she found truths engraved in the wall.

Dear friends, now we are children of the King, and what we will be has not yet been made known.

There is a King. I belong to him. And he will rescue me. I remember.

The girl remembered that she was in a castle. The dungeon of that castle yes, but a castle just the same. The thing was, the castle that she was in did not belong to the King. It belonged to the king’s enemy. The girl had been in the dungeon so long that she had completely forgotten about how the enemy had trapped her. She forgot that he was the one who put her there.

The girl tried hard to remember the face of her King. Had she ever seen him? Or had she just heard about him? These messages were about him though. She knew that.

The girl finally realized, after so much time, I am a princess. And I don't need a prince, because the King will rescue me. So she waits. She knows. She believes.  

Biblical references: Isaiah 41:10-13 /Psalm 34:18-19 /1 John 3:2