The Princess In The Swamp

Prepare yourselves for a long post. This one has been planned for about a week.

Okay, so I've been memorizing James and lately, God's session of teaching me all came into focus. It all started with studying Beth Moore and her explanation of Christians not acting like Christians, but letting Satan tell them that they're unclean and not worthy to be children of God and actually LIVE their glorious inheritance.

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with all meekness the implanted word that is able to save your souls... but the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing... Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this... to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:21, 25, 27

Okay so then, I wrote a story about it and before I share the story with you, I found a SONG to go along with it - like precisely goes with it. Well, you really get the kit'n'kaboodle this time - a verse, story and a song - I don't know what more I can give you. ^_^

Anberlin - The Unwinding Cable Car

Your motives unstable; you're like an unwinding cable car

Listening for voices, but it's the choices that make us who we are

Go your own way, even seasons have changed just burn those new leaves over

So self-absorbed you've seemed to ignore the prayers that have already come about

This is the correlation of salvation and love

Don't drop your arms

Don't drop your arms, I'll guard your heart

With quiet words I'll lead you in

Backing away from the problem of pain you never had a home

You've been misguided, you're hiding in shadows for so very long

Don't you believe that you've been deceived? that you're no better than...

The hair in your eyes, it never disguised what you're really thinking of

This is the correlation of salvation and love

Don't drop your arms, I'll guard your heart

With quiet words I'll lead you in

Don't soon forget

Grace marks your heart

Now, the story. It's called, unsurprisingly, The Princess In The Swamp.

Once upon a time there was a princess who did not believe she was a princess. Every morning she woke in her canopy bed and her maid dressed her in pure, draping white, soft and lace about her shoulders. After breakfast she went for a walk to the forest, going deeper and deeper until she couldn't see the sky.

The princess didn't always go to the swamp. Sometimes, she would sit on a log overlooking it or walk in closing circles around it, her white shoes slipping in the thick green moss. Some days, though, especially when it was raining, she would wade in, up to her knees, then her waist.

Every evening, at the castle, the princess would undress, take an uneasy bath and curl up in bed. Her dress was washed every night, grit soaked from the train, mud scrubbed from the lace. Every morning it was new, fresh, smelling lovely.

The princess felt at home in the swamp. It was a place she knew well. She appreciated the safety and provision the castle provided, but she didn't feel at home there. The corridors were strange and the cleanliness foreign.

As the princess ate fine white bread and honey one morning, the king came in. He asked her if she was staying the castle and when she replied she would take a walk, he said he'd come along.

Out of habit, she went to the swamp, but with the king beside her, she grew aware of how soiled her dress became and winced when the lace tore on a branch. The king made no comment until they reached the very heart of the swamp. She was too ashamed to look up as they both stood, shoes on the edge, oozed into the mud.

"Do you like it here?" He asked finally.

Miserably, she shook her head. Her shoes were yellow-brown. Then the tears came.

"How can you love me, when I look like this?"

The king picked the princess up and set her on the wide log that overlooked the swamp.

"Do you remember when you lived here?"

Wiping away tears, she shook her head.

"You were in a little hut right over there, with shackles on your wrists that only let you go as far as the middle of the swamp."

The princess remembered but she wanted the muddy threadbare sack-pillow to be a dream she'd dreamt while her head rested on pure white silk.

"When I came, I tore apart the hut and burned it. I took off your shackles and brought you to the castle and had you washed and dressed in white and gold. Then you became my princess."

The princess fingered her filthy finery, then looked up at her king.

"Why do I come back here, then?"

"I can break the shackles that hold your mind as well, princess. You feel comfortable here, but you belong at the castle."

She held out her arms. "Take me back."

He carried her back, out of the swamp, and washed her once more.

"Princess, stay in the castle with me. I have many wonderful things to show you."

Feeling her love for the king overflow, the princess smiled shyly. "May I eat breakfast with you tomorrow?"

"Every day, princess."

Then the princess knew she was a princess and the king was her delight.

~~~

We are free and pure in Jesus! Don't let Satan tell you otherwise.

Choose to live in liberty.

R<3