Vanity Fair and the Faithful Friend

“Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” — from Revelation 2

By now Christian had a travelling companion — a good, brave friend named Faithful. Together they came to a busy town with a huge fair called Vanity Fair, where people sold every shiny thing you could imagine and cared about nothing else.

The two pilgrims wouldn’t even look at all the glittering stuff. “What will you buy?” the sellers shouted. “We buy the truth,” they answered. That was all they wanted.

This made the crowd furious. They mocked the two friends, covered them in dirt, and locked them in a cage. Then they put brave Faithful on trial, with a mean judge and lying witnesses, and treated him terribly — but Faithful never stopped trusting God.

And here is the wonderful secret Bunyan wanted children to know: the moment Faithful’s life on earth ended, a chariot with horses swept down and carried him up through the clouds, straight to the gates of the great City. He got there first of all! Christian escaped the town — and soon a new friend named Hopeful joined him, because Hopeful had watched how bravely Christian and Faithful loved God.

The world doesn’t always like people who love God, and being faithful can cost something. But God sees, God remembers, and the reward is greater than anything the fair could sell.

Dear God, help me love the truth more than shiny things, and to stay faithful to you no matter what. Amen.