I am sure it never meant so much to me as a child. Today when I read it to David, it hit me over the head.
For quick background...it begins with a spoiled, incredibly proud, and rude princess who is looking at suitor after suitor and turns them all down while publicly mocking them, including King Hawksbeak who has a nose like a hawk's beak. She is so scornful, her father swears he will marry her to the next beggar who shows up to the castle doors. Three days later, a beggar appears. She becomes his wife.
All the while when he is taking her back to his house, she is bemoaning her state and wishing she had married King Hawksbeak. The beggar says, "Enough of this! Why should you be wanting another husband? Am I not good enough for you?" As the beggar's wife, she moves into a hovel where she is forced to stoop down to even enter the door. She is kept busy scrubbing the house, but when their food runs out, her husband tells her to make baskets with the rushes he has cut for her. The rushes bruise her tender hands. Her husband then tells her to spin, but the yarn cuts her delicate fingers. At this point, the husband commands her to take some crockery to the marketplace to sell it. She is hesitant because she does not want to be shamed in meeting someone she knew before, but she dares not disobey her husband. All goes better until a soldier gallops up on horseback and rides right over her crockery. All but two are broken in a thousand pieces. She then resorts to working as the lowest of the low in the kitchen at the palace. She ties the crocks onto her waist and takes home the scraps which she would not have even fed her dog in early days as a proud pricess. One day, she peeks into the ballroom just as the King is arriving. He asks her to dance and she does not dare refuse him. However, the string attaching her last two crocks breaks, and the crocks and all the scraps go all over the floor. All the guests ridicule her. She is utterly ashamed and rushes away. King Hawksbeak rushes after her. And then...
"He spoke to her tenderly and said: 'Do not be afraid of me. My hair is cut and whiskers are gone. I am King Hawksbeak. I was the beggar who married you. I was also the soldier who rode over your crockery. For love of you have I done these things that your beauty might be made perfect by sympathy and gentleness."
Wow! What an image of Christ!!! I should not complain when He humbles me. or when He rides all over my crockery and crushes them, only for my good-- to make me reliant on Him and to perfect me and make me beautiful. He loves me enough to "marry" me even in my pride and teach me where my true treasure is.
I loved that line above! It is beautiful and convicting all at the same time. I know for certain, God never showed me these truths as a child...
