While walking through the Publisher’s Outlet in the lobby of our building where we sell all the items we publish here at Strang Communications, I was surprised to see a book I had bought a copy of about 14 years ago at a Christian bookstore. I found that our company had secured the copyright to this wonderful book.
When I had first seen the book, my daughters were 5, 13 and 15, so I was always looking for something that might be of interest to them and at the same time, make a positive impact on their lives. The book, The True Princess by Angela Elwell Hunt, looked like something the girls may want to read, and the pictures were beautiful.
I picked it up and started reading the story, which was about a King who had a beautiful little girl whom he loved very much. She had everything any little girl could ever want. Poets wrote poems and musicians sang songs about her. There were maids to dress her and jokers to make her laugh. And she had a caregiver, Nana, who took care of her, and her father, the king, who loved her.
Her father suddenly had to go away and was leaving her in the care of Nana. The princess was worried because she didn’t know who would feed her, dress her, sing for her or make her laugh. The king explained that one day she would help rule the kingdom but she had to learn many things first. He comforted her by telling her that Nana would be with her and that because Nana was following his wishes, the princess would never be out of his care.
The King and Nana knew the princess had to be kept safe so they put her in regular clothes and hid her away from the palace in a little bakery house because “no one would expect the child of the king to be living as a servant.”
Nana taught the princess how to dress herself and sing songs from her heart, and when the little girl put too much yeast into a loaf of bread and the dough exploded all over the kitchen, the princess learned to laugh at herself.
One day, news reached the kingdom that the king would be returning soon. Everyone had looked all over for the princess, but she could not be found. Many girls in the kingdom thought they could take her place so they spent hours making themselves ready.
When the king returned and was ready to receive his daughter, the guards opened the door and the king surprisingly found 25 little girls waiting for him, 24 beautifully dressed and one in a patched dress at the back of the crowd.
The king smiled at the crowd and asked the first little girl to help his servant put on his cloak. The little girl refused and said, “A true princess has maids to do that.” The king stopped in front of the second little girl and asked her to sing a song for the kitchen helpers. That little girl frowned and said, “A princess hires singers to sing for them.” The king paused in front of the third and asked her to tell his soldiers a funny story. She told him to “Call the royal jokers. That’s what a REAL princess would do.”
The king looked at the group and asked if there was anyone who would be willing to serve him in any way. The quiet girl in the patched dress spoke up and said, “I’d be happy to, Sire,” she whispered. “Because I love you.” The king hugged the little girl close and said, “It is love that marks the true daughter of the king.”
Tears streamed down my face the first time I read the story, and it still touches my heart deeply whenever I read it. Why? Because it’s the love story that I have come to know so well through my relationship with God.
I have told it to my children and will tell it to my grandchildren. The King went away but He left His Holy Spirit to teach us all things, “to guide [us] into all truth” (John 16:13, NKJV), so that we will be ready when He returns for us. We must be diligent to learn all He wants us to know. And when He returns, He will know us by our love!
