I first encountered The Ugly Duckling from a Danny Kaye record. It’s the only one of the stories that I recall hearing in this way, a combination of story and song. I can remember being utterly puzzled by the story, since even at this age I knew that ducklings grew up into ducks and cygnets grew up into swans. It was a long time before the morals of the story – don’t judge by appearances; things can change over time; the ugly can become beautiful – penetrated the haze of literalism which would make me argue the point every time I heard the story.

Literalism and legalism are enemies of the soul. They stop us entering into the wonder of imagination and leave us only with the realm of the material and tangible. Jesus warned that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (John 6:63). Sometimes we must be prepared to embrace incongruity and imagination in order to grasp truth.

Inauspicious beginnings, rejection and ostracism, a sense of being misunderstood and not fitting in are the backdrop to many of our lives. I always identified with the ugly duckling as a character. I knew all about feeling lonely and picked on as a child; ‘fitting in’ has never been my forte. I have always also admired the serenity of the swan in water, its regal calm and svelte shape holding a deep attraction to me.

This story reminds us that change is possible. The Christian life is all about change: not just the instantaneous change that comes from our transfer from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light when we accept Christ as Saviour (1 Pet 2:9, 2 Cor 5:17) but the daily process of transformation which takes place as we gaze on God’s glory. (2 Cor 3:18)

Self-acceptance is a harder lesson to learn, perhaps. After years of scorn, the duckling did not even see the changes that had occurred in his life. It took others to point them out to him and for him to acknowledge he was no longer such an ugly duckling after all took time. If we are to learn to love ourselves, we have to hear the Father’s voice telling us we are truly loved and beautiful in His sight. Only then can we see ourselves as God sees us – beautiful swans, secure in His love.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a tale about a little girl who gets lost in a forest and ends up in the home of three bears (traditionally portrayed as Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear). She sits at the table (where the chairs are too large, too small and finally ‘just right’), eats the bears’ porridge (which is too hot, too cold and finally ‘just right’) before being found sleeping in their beds (which are too hard, too soft and finally ‘just right.’)

The conclusion of the story (how the bears deal with this invasion of privacy) varies, with some versions showing Goldilocks running away, vowing to be a good child in future, and in others being rescued by her mother from the wrath of the bears. The story seems to be a useful vehicle for teaching through repetition, but the ‘moral’ is less clearcut than in some other stories. Are we meant to sympathise with Goldilocks (who can appear quite selfish) or with the bears? Is the story a cautionary tale about the importance of respecting property or an encouragement to try out new things? It seems interesting to me that in a tale where repetition is clearly a teaching aid for young children, the ending is quite vague. I suspect children deal better with ambiguity than adults.

As a child, we are very aware that we do not know everything and that life is full of mystery. We accept implausible scenarios (talking bears, little girls alone in a forest) without question and are content to live in the ‘now’ of a story, secure in its structure and confident the author knows best. Perhaps this is something as adults we need to regain: the acceptance that we don’t have answers to all of life’s dilemmas but can trust in the love and care of a God who is both the author and finisher of our faith. (Heb 12:2)

As a child, I always loved the story of Rapunzel. I read it at an age when I still had long hair, and this story of an imprisoned princess who lets down her hair to allow access to her presence captivated me. Maybe it was the realisation that my hair would never be as long and luxuriant as Rapunzel’s which led to my decision to have it cut short as I grew older! (I suspect convenience had more to do with the decision, though it’s interesting that the modern version of the tale has been named ‘Tangled‘!)

Rapunzel has the classic fairytale elements of punishment, retribution, rescue and true love overcoming in the face of adversity. It also reminds us that love is found in the most inauspicious circumstances (the prince is drawn to Rapunzel when he hears her beautiful singing; she is locked away in a high tower, so there is no way he is initially drawn by mere looks alone.)

Rapunzel also shows us the folly of giviing in to short-term cravings, for in the original story, Rapunzel’s mother craves rampion (or rapunzel) to eat and her husband’s theft of this from a garden leads to Dame Gothel gaining the life of this child in a most unholy bargain. We see how one sin easily leads to another and how Rapunzel must bear the consequences of actions which had nothing to do with her.

This is a profound message wrapped in a children’s story, for all humanity bears the consequences of that first sin in the Garden of Eden and the challenge to grow to be beautiful and good is one we all face.

Fairytales often emphasise beauty in ways that many feel have led to shallowness and a fixation on ‘being a princess’ concerned only with appearance. In truth, these stories often delve far beyond outward beauty to bring us into an awareness of more fundamental values – love, loyalty, faithfulness, kindness and mercy. Rapunzel is not the easiest fairytale to unravel, but it too contains truth provoke us and lead us to ponder.

We had two more birthdays to celebrate tonight!

Dave spoke this evening from Luke 2:41-50, reminding us that the presence and anointing of the Holy Spirit are essential to us on our Christian journey. In this passage, Mary and Joseph left Jerusalem assuming Jesus was with them, but although it only took them one day to realise He was absent, it took three days for them to find Him in the temple. We can easily simply assume the Holy Spirit is present with us, but it is easy for us to run ahead of Him or to lose the immediate sense of the presence of Jesus. When this happens, we will only find Him again by going back to the place where we last experienced Him.

We need to seek God’s presence rather than presume He is always happy with us, for Eph 4:30 reminds us that it is possible to grieve the Holy Spirit. He is likened to a dove, a bird which is sensitive, peaceful, quiet and easily disturbed. The Holy Spirit will not adapt to us; we have to adapt to Him and treat Him with dignity and respect.

Eph 4:31-32 shows us the things which grieve the Holy Spirit: bitterness, anger, rage. brawling and slander. It’s so easy to let bitterness creep in and to hold on to grudges, but when we do this, we give the enemy a foothold and grieve God’s Spirit. Ex 40:36-38 reminds us that the Israelites were led by the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They only moved when the cloud or pillar of fire moved. We need to be the same, being led by the Holy Spirit. Eph 5:10 reminds us we need to find out what pleases the Lord, and we do this by spending time with Him and adjusting our lifestyle so that it is in line with what God says. When God convicts us by His Spirit, we need to respond.

We need to be people who welcome the Holy Spirit, people who welcome Him as a friend and don’t ignore Him. He is our friend, our guide and our God. We simply can’t manage without Him.

John Brackenbury spoke this morning on perhaps one of the most famous and most loved verses in the Bible, Romans 8:28, which tells us that God works all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. God is working for our good in everything!

That begs the question, of course, as to what God’s purposes are. 1 John 3:8 tells us that ‘the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.‘ God in Christ has worked to defeat the enemy so that we may be saved and brought into a relationship with Him. This purpose has been God’s plan from before the beginning of time (2 Tim 1:9) and Christ is the fulfilment of the purpose of God. If we have been restored to a relationship with God, then Rom 8:28 applies to us.

God calls us all; His call goes to the ends of the earth (Is 45:22), a call that has been extended to Gentiles and Jews alike (Rom 9:24), but we need to respond to that call, all the while knowing that we did not ultimately choose God, but He chose us. (John 15:6)  Our calling has been planned by God, but the aim for us then is that we become like Christ (Rom 8:29) and live a life of love which is like God’s love (see 1 John 4:8-5:3)

Our love must therefore be…

1. reactionary (we love because God has first loved us, as John tells us in 1 John 4:19)
2. reflective (affecting our relationships with all people, for God loves all people)
3. responsible (for we are called to love as God loves, which means loving our enemies and blessing those who seek to harm us)
4. revolutionary (going above and beyond the ‘duty’ calls of love)
5. restorative (for Christ restored Peter even after his denials and shows us mercy and compassion, not judgment and condemnation)

Not everything that happens to us in life is good. When bad things happen, we can easily wonder where God is and why He has allowed these things into our lives. Job discovered that faith has to be tested, but the truth is that every single set of circumstances that conspire against us can be worked together for good by God. Paul is confident in saying we know this. We do not simply hope this is the case or imagine this to be true. Instead, we are aware of this truth and can trust God’s good plans for us even in the midst of difficulties (Jer 29:11). Our circumstances can be transformed by God, but even more amazing, we can be transformed by Him.