This week, I am beginning a series of posts that are taken from a conference talk I gave at my church in the fall of 2023. I have been wanting to share this story here ever since giving it as a talk, but at the time I didn’t even have access to the blog because of some backend issues with my server! Now that I am back and writing again, I decided it was finally time to share this with all of you here. Since this is a rather lengthy story, though, I am breaking it up into several installments. I hope you will stick around to the end of the series, because this is a story of hope, even though today’s part comes from a pretty dark place. But without further ado, here is the story of “The Princess, the Dragon, and the King: An Allegory.”
Once upon a time, in a land not so far away from this one, there lived a young princess. This princess grew up hearing all the best fairy tales, and her daydreams were filled with beautiful castles in the air where happiness and peace reigned supreme.
When the princess was of age, she left her parents’ realm and married a gallant young prince, and together they served the King of the whole realm by taking dominion over a small country of their own.
The prince and princess lived quite happily, doing their work for the King, though enemies threatened from without and shadows often lurked, even within the castle walls.
In time, a son was born to the prince and princess, a fair princeling who they hoped would grow up to serve the King in his turn. At first, all was well.
But soon, the princess became aware that the shadows within the castle had now stolen into her mind and heart. Although she could not see him, she knew that a fierce dragon was dwelling in those shadows, growing in strength. He came bringing fear, anger and deep darkness, slowly but surely poisoning the princess.
The prince was worried, but he had his own battles to fight all over their domain, so he continued working tirelessly, day in and day out, all the while watching his princess gradually become more like a monster as the dragon’s evil power grew stronger.
Finally, the princess began to believe that the only way to stop the dragon’s destructive force and protect her prince, her infant son, and the rest of the realm, would be to die, thereby killing the dragon living within her at the same time.
To be continued…
Please check back next week (or even better, subscribe to my email list) to hear part 2 of the story!
Kiel
