As children, we loved fairy stories that captured our imagination. A pumpkin turned into a golden coach and mice transformed into prancing horses! Cinderella, adorned in a beautiful ball gown and wearing glass slippers, the girl from the ashes dancing with the Prince! What could be more magical than that!

Well, for Molly and me, it’s quite the opposite. When we haven’t walked for a few days, for her the territory is brand new and everything on our route must be re-examined in minute detail.

The result is that I am transformed into a donkey and she becomes the wagon the donkey pulls. Progress up the hill is slow because the “wagon’s wheels” refuse to turn any faster than the exploring and inquisitive nose will allow. If I don’t pull her at times, our trip around the block would take all day!

So much for fairy tales!

How much like Molly we are when God gives us clear instructions to do or not to do according to His Word. We still insist on sniffing out other possibilities and looking for ways to do what we we choose to do without getting into too much trouble.

Take the young couple who knows it’s wrong to fornicate before marriage. “It’s okay,” they say, “because, after all, we are going to get married.” But that’s not what God said. “Marriage first, then union.” Then they wonder why things go horribly wrong.

Why are we like wagons that have to be pulled before we move? We are so much like Jonah. God said, “Go to Ninevah,” so he went to Tarshish. God had to pull him hard before he went in the right direction.

God is looking for people like Abraham or David who do what they are told to do without having to be pulled like a wagon.

There are no fairy tales with magical happy endings in God’s scheme of things,only loving obedience to a faithful and glorious Father who has done so much for us. All we can is to love Him in return by doing His will – gladly and spontaneously.