our most desperate need, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jer 31:3)? Will not the Prince of Life one day rescue us and bring us with rejoicing into the King’s ivory palace of gold and gladness (Psa 45:13–15)? Are we perhaps in other respects like Sleeping Beauty? Once again, the Brothers Grimm tell us of a lovely princess who was cursed by the spell of a jealous fairy. It was told that, before the princess’ sixteenth birthday, she would prick her finger on a spindle and fall into a death-like