Princess Elizabeth made the most beautiful Valentines in the entire world. Every year, she would create them for her friends and loved ones. People around the country and around the whole world would open their mailboxes to find her gorgeous Valentines.
They would pull out their envelopes, and they would unfold them, gasping with joy, "This is exquisite! How did the Princess know I would love this? She looked into my heart, and sent what I've been needing."
Yet every Valentine's Day, the Princess would go to her own mailbox, looking for Valentines. Sometimes, there would be one or two or three. She knew that other people loved her. She really did. She was thankful for the Valentines she opened, and she put them on her table, to see when she ate her royal breakfast and lunch.
She also knew that, even when others didn't send her cards, people did love her. They were busy with their own lives. She just missed them. She tried not to feel sad inside in her quiet moments.
But there was a place in her heart that wished for something more, something she could not even put into words.
She remembered all the Valentines she had sent out over the years, all the times in her life when she had waited for a mailbox filled with Valentines from the people who had never really recognized how special she is, who she hoped would finally see the magic inside her.
One night, Princess Elizabeth had a dream. In the dream, an angel took the Princes by her hand. They went to a far-off place, somewhere very crowded. There were lines and lines of men, women, and children, waiting patiently for something important."Do I need to get in this line?" the Princess asked the angel.
"Oh, no," laughed the angel. "They are waiting for YOU! These are all the people whose lives have been made better by you. You have loved them, or encouraged them, or prayed for them. They may not have told you before, but they are here to tell you what you have meant to them and to the world."
"But there are so many of them!" said the Princess.
"Go through this door. You'll need to squeeze around the line over to the side," the angel told her.
It took her awhile, but they finally made their way through the doorway and outside, where they could see the hills, covered by the lines and lines of people, all waiting to tell her how much her life had made their lives more beautiful.
When she woke up, Princess Elizabeth had tears on her cheek. She knows that God understands what is in her heart, and God sees her needs and her motives when she gives to others. Every now and then, she gets a glimmer that others just may see her heart, and the magic that's inside, too. And when she gets to heaven, I bet the hills will be covered with crowds, waiting to say to her, "Thank you for your life."
[This is a story I wrote for my mother a few years ago on Valentine's Day.]
No comments:
Post a Comment