What do most people think of when they hear the phrase "happily ever after"? Typically, people picture a life of eternal happiness, usually involving marriage, where nothing ever goes wrong. But really, those people have got it totally wrong. Take fairytales, for example. The main character--the hero or heroine of the story--is usually in distress, and along comes a handsome prince or a savior of some sort and fixes everything, and "they all live happily ever after." But do they really? What happens after happily ever after?
I think there is a deeper meaning behind this "happily ever after" at the end of many stories. In real life, there is no way we can live a life with no hardships or obstacles, or else we would be as helpless as a wee baby, with nothing to worry about. Happily ever after CAN'T happen in this world, because in order for there to be a happily ever after, everything would have to be perfect, and human beings are far, far from perfect. I'm hoping you've guessed by now where I'm leading. The only place that "happily ever after" could ever happen is in Heaven! It kind of figures, since Heaven is a place where there will be none of the troubles we find on Earth.
But just as it is in fairytales, in order to reach "happily ever after," there are always hardships first. In Cinderella, a young girl spends years toiling away at the mercy of her stepmother and stepsisters before she is recognized for her true beauty and delivered from her suffering. In Beauty and the Beast, Belle seeks to do what is right and is miserable because of it, but she is rewarded for her kindness in the end. In the same way, we live a life in this world with hardships and obstacles we must face, and we learn from them and grow in the time we spend here on Earth. But despite all our spiritual hardships and trials, we are later rewarded with eternal life, to live ever after with our Father in Heaven.
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