“Here this now, I will always come for you.” ~Wesley from The Princess Bride
During the last post, we explored the classic story of The Princess Bride and how the story’s hero, Wesley, embodies the picture of God’s True Love pursuing our hearts through every dark valley and conquering every obstacle until are face to face with Love itself. And then we have a choice to make. During the previous post, we followed Wesley’s side of the story who has dedicated his life to pursuing his beloved Buttercup just as Jesus has pursued His bride, the Church. That is until we came to the question, “Where are you in the story?”
This question gives us space to look into our own hearts to see where we are in our relationship to True Love. In this post, I want to switch from focusing on Wesley as the hero embodying the constant heart of True Love to examining how Buttercup grows and changes throughout the story. For this is our part in the story.
At the story opens and we first meet Buttercup, we discover that she is haughty, self-centered and demanding. At first, she sees little value in Wesley, calling him “farm boy”, and she often acts like a spoiled brat ordering him to serve and fetch for her. But over time, in response to his kindness and love, she begins to gentle and show consideration and care for someone other than herself. In short, she begins to learn how to love.
I Corinthians 13:4-5a
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast;
it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way;
However, just as she is beginning to respond to the true love that Wesley shows her, her love is tested as he leaves her to pursue his fortune. She is doubtful about his return even when he has promised her that he will indeed return for her. He tells her, “Here this now, I will always come for you.” and in this we see the parallel with our love story with Jesus who also allows our love to be tested by going away and promising that He will return for us at the right time.
In the story of The Princess Bride (and in our own tale), the hero does not return right away. A lot of time passes and eventually Buttercup hears the news she has been dreading to hear – that Wesley has been murdered. At this point, she thinks the story is over and despairs of ever seeing her true love come for her. She testifies later in the story that she “died that day”. And, indeed, in a sense she had. For she closed up her heart and swore that she would never love anyone again.
We also face the same challenges in our own story – How do we respond when the news of death enters our own tale? Death of our dreams. Death of our future hopes. Death of a child. Death of close loved one. Death of our own love story. Do we still believe the promise that Jesus made to us – that He will love us to the end and that He will always return for us? I have to ask myself, “No matter what happens, do I still believe that the One who says He loves me is truly coming back for me?”
“No matter what happens, do I still believe that the One who says He loves me is truly coming back for me?”
For most of us, I think the answer is probably no. On our own, we would probably respond in a very similar way to Buttercup – giving up on the promise given, and ultimately on Love itself. What happens next in the story is quite extraordinary. Wesley does indeed come for Buttercup, as he promised he would, but he comes in disguise and she does not recognize him. He comes not only to rescue her from her captors, but also to awaken her heart to love again. Love came to us in disguise as well, and for the same reason. Jesus came in human form both to rescue us from being held captive by sin and also to awaken our hearts to God’s love again. There is something truly miraculous and transformative that happens when we are awakened to the fact that we are desired and fought for by Love itself. Our hearts become alive again in response to His love. As St. John tells us, “We love because He first loved us.” (I John 4:19)
“We love because He first loved us.”
~ I John 4:19
Once Buttercup realizes that her true love is still alive and has come for her as he said he would, her whole countenance changes and in her delight her heart of love is revived and she begins to understand the nature of true love is to never fully die, but always to be resurrected in a new form. This frees her from any fear of future deaths, distance, or destruction. For she knows now that nothing can separate her from her true love. He promised that he will “always come for her” and she now has such a confidence in his promise that she is willing to defy the wicked prince who has made her his prisoner. Even when the prince tells her that he has killed Wesley, she no longer believes this is the final word. Instead, she boldly declares her confidence telling the prince, “[We] are joined by the bonds of love. And you cannot track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds, and you cannot break it, not with a thousand swords.”
“[Buttercup] begins to understand the nature of true love is to never fully die,but always to be resurrected in a new form.”
Love has transformed her heart from one that was self-focused and fearful of death to a heart that now is free of fear and stays true to her beloved even in the face of threats and danger. St. John comments on this transforming aspect of Love when he says in his letter, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (I John 4:18). When we experience God’s faithful love for ourselves, we will find that we are changed.
Like Wesley’s faithful love for Buttercup, God’s love is pursuing you. If you open up your heart to His love, He promises that He will always come for you and that your heart will be transformed. You will be set free to love again, even in the face of accusing threats and death itself. Nothing will be able to separate you from His love ever again. Jesus promised that all who come to Him will be secure in His love. He says, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).
This transforming work of Love doesn’t happen overnight. It is a slow and steady work that moves us from one stage in the journey to the next until every fear and bitter wound has been uncovered and cast out because God’s love has been invited in to awaken love in our hearts again and embolden our resolve to stand firm waiting for His promised return to come for us.
~St. Paul (Romans 8:38-39)
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Aliel Cunningham 
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