Check Out My 2016 Painting and Post Goals

A Cinderella Story (Week 42)

Story Behind The Painting:

A friend requested debutant gifts for two young girls whom she loves like her own.  The painting featured today is the first vision that found its way onto the canvas.  I ended up going a totally different direction for the gifts she commissioned but realized this piece was specifically fashioned for a blog post.  These precious girls, debutants, got the extra blessing of being doubly prayed over, as I painted another set of canvases for them:)  The ball is this weekend; so I will not add a picture of the new canvases until after the girls have received their gifts. Wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise!

Little did I know when I set out painting and praying for these two debutants by name, that I would be speaking a victory march over the next generation of daughters, daughter’s of the Most High King, daughters dressed in white, because the victorious wear white!

“All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.”  Rev. 3:5 NLT

Take-away Treasure:

When I think of a ball and white gowns, I cannot help but think of Cinderella.  As a little girl, I remember treasuring that fairytale in my heart and believing, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that our dreams really can and will come true.

I know that sounds naive and almost silly to someone seasoned (or cynical) in life on this fallen planet but I believed it then and guess what?

I believe it even more NOW!

Let me explain.

As a little girl, I may have believed it because I had not yet experienced the pains of heartbreak, betrayal or shame.  I believed it because I believed what I saw in movies, read in literature and colored in coloring books.  My rose-colored glasses took a hit when I was 8 and my friend’s dad was killed by a drunk driver.  I don’t remember that part of Cinderella, do you?

BUT I was also 8 when I walked down front at a Billy Graham Crusade with my daddy and gave my little naive, rose-colored heart to That Jesus.  I can see in hind-sight how God was right there with me. The promise is HIS PRESENCE, not a PAINLESS LIFE.

Not all things are good,

BUT GOD

“…is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan.” Romans 8:28

The storyline continued the detour with relationship betrayals and personal poor choices. Giving my heart to Christ did not rid my story of struggle or shame

but it did…

keep a flicker of hope burning deep inside, a “knowing in my knower” that I was never alone, always loved and somehow, someway the fairytale was still POSSIBLE,

but really more than that…

that the fairytale was PROMISED.

If you had asked me then what the FAIRYTALE was, I may have told you a Disney version, but the FAIRYTALE that was written on my heart was actually the Revelation version, the FAITHTALE,

THE REAL REST OF THE STORY!

“I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate.”

Then he said, “It’s happened. I’m A to Z. I’m the Beginning, I’m the Conclusion. From Water-of-Life Well I give freely to the thirsty. Conquerors inherit all this. I’ll be God to them, they’ll be sons and daughters to me.”  Revelation 21:3-7

In all my years of wandering, as the cellar dweller, muddy mess, God saw me dressed in white.  He still saw me in the righteous robes of Christ, even when I did not.  In Christ, we have the Kingdom of God within us and we have an “Eternal Ball” in our future.  I truly believe that once we are saved, and the enemy of our soul knows he can no longer steal our soul, he aims to kill our hope and destroy our witness.  The “thief” also sees our white gowns, even when we do not.  He wants to make sure we stay covered in CINDERS, believing we are not “ball-worthy.”

“A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy… 

BUT GOD…

I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” John 10:10 MSG

WE ARE BALL-BOUND IN CHRIST!

_______________________________________________________________

May I bring the debutant theme full circle and reveal the “spiritual truth” in this “worldly title.”

A debutant is defined as “a young woman of upper-class background who is presented to society, usually at a formal ball.”

BUT

A “spiritual debutant” is defined as a young woman who asks Christ into her heart, which immediately makes her of the “Most High” upper-class. She is presented brand new, dressed in the white, righteous robes of the Prince of Peace AND ushered into a Holy Throne Room standing before the King of Kings.

If Christ is in your heart, you are dressed in dazzling white, regardless of what you may think.  Step into your destiny, into the freedom you were set free for.  Wear those righteous robes loud and proud, not in yourself but in the ONE who clothed you for a

“debutant’s dance.”

If Christ is not in your heart or you are not sure, simply open the door.  HE stands there knocking. Being the Gentleman that HE is, HE will not enter without an invitation.

 The fairytale is more than possible; it is a PROMISE.

“A Cinderella Story” pales in comparison to HIStory. Don’t you think?