Future Self: Teen Zine vol. 5, Chapter 4: future self—hold on to neverland
Juliette Alvey
What is your favorite happy ending of all time?
I can think of so many good ones! Whether it was Cinderella breaking out of her tower just in time to try on the glass slipper and marry the prince, or Doc Brown getting the wire plugged in on the clock tower at the last second to get Marty back to the future, or Mr. Darcy coming to meet Elizabeth Bennet to renew his sentiments one last time and her reciprocating his love at last… We love happy endings. They are satisfying. When all hope seems lost or it comes after much suffering or waiting, a happy ending is even more gratifying.
As enjoyable as these stories are, sometimes we convince ourselves that happy endings only happen in fiction. Our struggles in life make us so jaded that we believe the lie that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.
None of us wants to be childish or foolish. And so we start to lose hope that there could actually be such a thing as a happy ending in our own lives.
I remember a theology professor of mine describing a scene in a series he watched where some men were about to crash in a plane due to a malfunction in the landing gear, but one of the men was an aspiring cartoonist, and in desperation he drew some big yellow wheels, and they magically appeared on their plane. They were saved. My professor, who was normally somewhat stoic and did not trust emotions as proof of actual truth, was tearing up describing these cartoony wheels, which were the saving grace for those men on the plane.
It was an odd moment as a student listening to this grown man… Apparently he had not lost his grasp on “Neverland” after all. It was not that he believed it was actually possible for someone to draw cartoony wheels into existence, it was that he believed in the true gospel of Jesus Christ so deeply and was so unbelievably thankful for his own undeserved and unexpected salvation, that a silly story capturing that feeling of relief of being rescued brought out this deep gratitude he felt toward God for this amazing gift.
This is the kind of imagination we try to push aside because we feel it is not mature or “adult” enough, but that we so desperately need to hold on to.
Future Self: Teen Zine vol. 5, Chapter 4 describes it this way:
“It might sound funny, but when you imagine your future, don’t leave your imagination behind. Imagination is not only for small children to play pretend—it is for all ages to tap into our childlike faith which reminds us we stand on a solid foundation of truth” (p 93).
The “solid foundation of truth” is this:
“The keys to your future are in Jesus, who opened the gates of heaven for all of humanity… Jesus flung open the gates of heaven so all who believe in him will find themselves in a new heaven and earth upon his return” (p 96-97).
When we try to imagine the new heaven and earth that Jesus will bring upon his return, which we are invited into, our adult imaginations want to convince us that this happy ending is way too good to be true. But God’s word tells us that “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb 11:1). We did not see most of what we believe. Were you there during the Revolutionary War when the United States gained its independence? Were you there when Alexander the Great expanded his empire? Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Most of what we believe we did not see firsthand. We believe these stories because we trust the people who have told us. God’s story is trustworthy and true because HE is trustworthy and true. God’s future that he promises is as certain as a past event that has already occurred. His promises to us in Jesus are as good as done, and so when we imagine ourselves living “happily ever after,” this is grounded in his sure and certain truth. He has in fact rescued us and will bring us into his kingdom in the best happy ending ever.
