And they lived Happily Ever After ...
The idea of Happily Ever After appeals to us partly because our hearts are wired by God for it. The problem comes when we set up the next milestone, acheivement or title as what will give us happily ever after. This is easy to see - and each of us can look back on times in our lives when we put too many happily ever after eggs in the basket of a job, promotion, possession ... etc.
What is more difficult to see is that many good things - love, family, healthy relationships can also appeal to our desire for Happily Ever After. While these things are good and right, they cannot give us Happily Ever After. For us, Happily Ever After comes with God in eternity future (Rev 21 - 22). Nothing else, however good, can give it to us.
In the first Narnian story "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", even after the two sons of Adam and the two daughters of Eve sit on the four thrones in the castle at Cair Paravel, it is not happily ever after - because Aslan does not live there. However wonderful, it is not the final Happily Ever After that we were wired for.
As a result, we experience loss and grief with the inevitable transitions of this life. We are called to love well, and the loss or parting of those we love can't be avoided, and we should not try. The only way to avoid it is to experience the loss of not loving well. And it really should not surprise us - because the permanance of Happily Ever After awaits us.
2 comments:
Perhaps every instance of "happily ever after's" failing can serve as a reminder of the imperfection of this world and the need for our eyes to be focused on heaven. Each disappointment tells us our desires are placed wrongly. ?
Not sure about every and each - but I think that is generally correct. Sometimes I have to look at myself first - and if I am included along with the world as being imperfect and causing some of the failing and disappointment that I experience, then I think I agree.
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