What You Say

I would like to tell you the basics of a story I once wrote:

A king has a daughter. A princess, precious and perfect, heir to everything he can give her.

But she is not the king’s first child. His four older children were born and raised to be bodyguards for the princess, their half-sister. That is why they exist, and it is the only way most others see them. They are heirs to nothing but mistreatment. They are used and overlooked, never loved.

In time, the princess grows up and moves away – accompanied by her bodyguards, of course – to marry a prince, joining their two kingdoms. The prince’s father is a good king who loves his new daughter-in-law, but he also looks at her bodyguards and sees people. People who have been hurt and neglected, people who should be loved. Not only does he treat them with respect, he insists everyone around him does so as well. He has no other children, no nieces or nephews, and he concludes that, in the event of an unfortunate catastrophe that leaves the kingdom without an heir, who best to be next in line for the throne but the princess’ very competent oldest brother?

For the first time in their lives, the bodyguards are loved and respected and treated like the royalty they always should have been. Learning to expect this, and to truly believe they’re worthy of it, is a years-long process. It does not come easily. It takes a lot of patience, a lot of growth, a lot of relearning how the world is supposed to work.

If you are in Christ, God has made you his child and his heir. You are no longer a slave to sin and the world. He is a good father and a good king who treats you with love and respect. Maybe it will take a lifetime to learn to live as though that’s true, and to expect it, but you are allowed to take God at his word here. It is worth the effort.

Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. – Galatians 4:6-7