This past weekend my daughters danced in their end of year recital. The ballet portion was a production of Cinderella. Just like the traditional story, the fairy godmother shows up and provides all that Cinderella needs to attend the ball. But she warns Cinderella that it can only last for so long. As I watched, I wondered if the fairy godmother could have made this Cinderella’s new reality. Could she have changed Cinderella’s world permanently? Then the question left my mind as I continued watching. 

Later in the play, Cinderella was begging the clock hands not to take away her happiness but to give her a little more time. Once again I wondered why there was a limit. Why not just give her what she wants? Why not just change everything for her so she doesn’t have to go back to the miserable reality she was living in? But that isn’t the story. That isn’t what happens. Cinderella goes home thankful for a happy moment, but resigning herself that her reality will never change. 

For us living in the real world, that’s a hard thought to wrestle with when things aren’t the way we want them. We often wonder why God can’t just change our reality. We wonder if He does not care enough to intervene. But no one looks at the fairy godmother as the bad guy in Cinderella. No one blames her for not giving more, for not caring more, for not giving Cinderella more time with the prince. But too often people do view God as the bad guy of the story when the story doesn’t have a happy ending.

That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t ever intervene in the lives of people. In the passage this week, we see Jesus changing the life of a child. Maybe we wonder why he chose this child? Why this father? Why this situation? In all honesty, I don’t know. We aren’t privileged with that information. But this dad asks, and Jesus answers. Does that mean if we don’t get what we want from Jesus, then He is the bad guy of our story? How do we pull together the bad, the unanswered prayers, and the hurt with the fact that Jesus does love and care for us? Do we wrestle with the truth that God loves us, yet know the world can be a hard and trying place? Or do we just resign ourselves to thinking that our reality will never change?

We may end up grumpy or despondent to the work that God is doing in our lives because we are too focused on what God is not doing. In many of the stories of Jesus interacting with the people around Him, He shows such kindness, tenderness, and compassion, but there seems to be a different situation going on in this passage. Jesus’s recorded words are these:

 Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” 

Not very tender or compassionate sounding words, are they? He calls the generation faithless and twisted. Other versions render this as “unbelieving and perverse.” He isn’t happy with what He is being met with in this crowd or the report He is hearing about His disciples. Then He says “how long am I to bear with you?” Usually when we have to bear with someone, it isn’t a joyful experience. Jesus is interacting with a group that doesn’t seem to be deserving of His mercy and healing. Yet, He does have mercy, and He does heal. 

In the story of Cinderella, what would we think if the fairy godmother showed up and gave the wicked stepsisters all that they wished for? We would think the story was unfair, unkind, unjust; but isn’t that exactly what Jesus does? He shows mercy to the undeserving. Who He is and how He loves isn’t dependent upon the person’s character or good moral standing. It is dependent upon who He is and how He loves the greatest of sinners. 

In Cinderella there is a happily ever after. It’s a fairy tale, so it is supposed to end that way. We don’t live in a fairy tale, and, if we did, most of us would identify more with the wicked stepsisters than sweet, obedient, kind, selfless Cinderella. Aren’t we thankful that God bestows good gifts to the undeserving? Can’t we praise Him for what He has done for us? We have been given salvation, not based on our works but on His. We have been given a teacher in the Spirit and an intercessor in the Son. These things aren’t changed because of our life situations or circumstances. We are still loved, cared for, healed, saved, and shown mercy because He is a good God and Savior who is and always will be faithful to those He calls His own. 

So when we can’t answer the question of why God has not changed our circumstances or healed our loved one or given us our desires, we can answer the question: does He care? Just a few verses later, He tells His disciples that He will be delivered into the hands of men. He knows His future. He knows the pain, betrayal, and heartache that await Him, and to that He willingly walks. He loves us. He desires to bring us to the family of God so we can enter into the sacred places to be with God. This is a truth we can hold onto and find comfort and peace in when we can’t answer the other questions that fill our minds. 

In the midst of the hurt and heartache, we can praise Him that there is a future coming where God will permanently heal the hurting and keep safe the vulnerable, and where we will dwell with Him and He with us. 

²⁸ They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. ²⁹ And I will provide for them renowned plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations. ³⁰ And they shall know that I am the LORD their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord GOD. ³¹ And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 34