Fairy Tale Wishes

By Karen Friday

A princess. A handsome prince. A maiden lovely in form and beauty. A knight in shining armor. Fairy dust. A magical land—where wishes really do come true.

I’m a dreamer—dreaming that started long, long ago as a child—the dream of fairy tale wishes. Little girl wishes became big girl wishes.

A girl with insecurities magnifying the need for dream-wishing. In school. In social circles. In life. I wish I looked like her…I wish he would pick me…I wish I had that talent…I wish things were different…I wish…

A wish for the sprinkling of fairy dust—magically transforming me into the fairest in the land. 

Once upon a time, in the land of fourth grade, a little girl made a wish. The wish for a magic wand to change her to princess status.

She—I—was humiliated. The ruler in the land, the classroom teacher, had logged and posted a proclamation of everyone’s height and weight in his land. Hung on the main wall in the kingdom for everyone to see. It was one of two years I grew sideways, but not up. By six grade—without the help of a magic wand—I shot up in height—allowing everything to adjust accordingly. Horror and deep insecurity during my fourth grade year, left me feeling inferior—on the inside—even though the outside had changed.

I wished for fantasy in much of my life. The fantasy of fairy tales that come true. And the best part of escaping into this world of fantasy? The ending of “happily ever after.”

A happy ending is one of those living with hopes of fairy tale wishes I want for the person on the pages of a book, or on the screen—and the wish I’ve always wanted—for me!

Not all fairy tales or stories end happy—I am not happy about that—not at all. 

The not-so-happy ending leaves me in tears or frustrated when someone dies, pending doom comes to the main character, the evil villain wins, or it is too late for love.

I never look at the ending of a story before I start at the beginning. The magical part of reading a story is going through the process with the characters. The wonderment of what will happen next?

In real life—I’ve lost the wonderment of what happens next in a story and replaced it with fear of what might happen next. The crippling fear of wondering if I can control what happens next—the reason for the need of fantasy.

The world we live in, is not the happily ever after we’ve been told about in fairy tales. Sure, we have happy moments we label, “one of the happiest days of my life!” Moments we celebrate—the birth of a baby, a wedding day, a graduation, special school events, winning an award or honor, and an anniversary.

My happiest day? When a knight in shining armor rescued me from the hand of a villain. A holy and powerful knight, riding a white horse with an entire army following behind him (Revelation 19:11-16). The prince of peace.

The peace that overtakes the insecurities within me— within my fairy tale land. The King of all Kings from a heavenly land—where he is the fairest of all—with no requirement for fairy dust.

A place where wishes really do come true. God-wishes. Wishes for the deep longing in our souls for real happiness.

A story that begins with a creator—creating a land and the people that live there. The process and wonderment of what happens next is different for each character—each trying to find their own way in the land. The heart of the creator is for each one to find their way—to him—their creator—giving their heart and dream-wishes to him. The villain in the land—a fallen creation—with an evil heart—works to keep each dream-wisher distracted along the way—with the hope of control—of what happens next in the land (Genesis 1:1, 1:26, Isaiah 14:12, 2 Timothy 2:26).

In the last chapter of the story we read that the evil villain is defeated by the great creator and the knight of holiness and goodness is coming back for all the dream-wishers—who have found their way back to the creator (Revelation 12:9, John 3:16, Revelation 22:20).

Jesus is coming soon. 

This is no fairy tale.

Will there be a happily ever after? Yes. If you wish…

To be introduced to The Prince of Peace and to live “for-ever-after”—in the land of heaven.

© 2014 by Karen Friday