“Cinderella” at the
Fabulous Fox was a rare late night out for my husband and me since last
May. Some ongoing health issues flared up rather nastily last spring, and even though I am considerably better, it is still
with some hesitation that I make plans for a late evening. But, we both wanted to go and at our newly
discovered area on the ground floor level, we could have two seats for
$60.00—practically a steal!
I was expecting the
wonderful and magical story with some songs I still know by heart since seeing the
1965 musical version on television. Then
16, I identified with some of Cinderella’s “situation,” minus a wicked
stepmother and sisters, fairy godmother, etc.
I still own a vinyl soundtrack of that production which is again getting
played and enjoyed. What I was not
expecting at this slightly tweaked Fox production were all the little girls
coming in for the show, little princesses dressed fit for a ball or party. How sweet—and innocent-- is that!
The television
promotions for the show featured the song, “Impossible,” perhaps one of the
more memorable songs in the various productions over the years. The song asserts the impossibility of pumpkins becoming carriages, an ordinary shoe turning
into a glass slipper, a country bumpkin
marrying a prince—you get the picture.
Such things fit into one definition of a fairy tale according to Merriam-Webster
Dictionary: “a story in which improbable events lead to a happy ending.” I do love those happy endings, especially the
ones that look improbable or impossible.
With a fairy godmother in the picture, such things can happen.
The impossible
becoming possible stories fill the scriptures from start to finish. A barren, old woman, Sarah, bearing a child—impossible
except that “with God, nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37). A large group of Israelites saved from
destruction with Pharaoh’s army at their backs and the Red Sea’s daunting
waters just ahead—impossible apart from Moses lifting his rod and
trusting God to divide the waters for their escape. In Jesus’s ministry, time after time our
compassionate and Spirit-filled Savior loosed the afflicted, forgave the “unforgiveable,”
fed the 5,000 with just a boy’s lunch, and healed the multitudes of the sick
and infirm—impossible in the natural but not with the supernatural abilities of
the Holy Spirit.
Going to the Fox that
night was a chance to see a good show, but perhaps even more it was a way to
continue believing for the impossible—apart from God. We humans can be “held captive” by many
destructive forces, like addictions, diseases, crushing life disappointments,
resentment, hate—until the gracious hand of God provides a “grand reversal” of
our circumstances. For Cinderella, the
reversal (via a fairy godmother) moved her from an unkind and lonely
circumstance to one of ecstatic love and
kindness from a charming prince. For me,
a grand reversal would be from a life of chronic pain, stiffness and difficulty
walking—with no medical cure—to an active, thriving woman touched by the
healing virtue that still comes when we seek the giver of all good gifts.
“Improbable events
leading to a happy ending” should be possible in real life as well as fairy
tales. The manifested compassion and
power of God is so needed in the church for our good but also for a wondrous
demonstration to the world that Jesus loves and ministers still when we
believe.
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