“Cinderella” is neither an allegory nor a gospel story, yet as with all of creation, it reveals aspects of the gospel story in various ways. Just as creation reveals God’s divine nature and eternal power, this tale reflects particular experiences of the universal church that manifest God’s dealings with the church. Within this beloved fairy tale, we see a picture of the endurance, favor, and rescue of the universal church.

In the story, Cinderella herself is the embodiment of the universal church. She is said to be unparalleled in goodness and sweetness of temper. Thus she is the church redeemed by Christ and endowed with His nature. Yet, just like Israel was forced into a promised land filled with enemies and the church was redeemed in the midst of a fallen world, so Cinderella finds herself in a house ruled by wicked leaders and peers. Her stepmother cannot bear the good qualities of Cinderella and her stepsisters constantly deride and chide her. It is worth noting that Cinderella is not related to them by blood. She has a different birth that is totally foreign to theirs. This is much like the church, which has been born again and is of another origin than the community that surrounds her.

With that background in place, it is easier to see the mirrored aspects of the church through “Cinderella.” The first reflects the church’s endurance in the midst of her enemies. As has been said, Cinderella’s stepmother cannot bear the good qualities of the child. She constantly rules Cinderella with a spiteful and harsh hand. The stepsisters join in their mother’s disgust by calling her “Cinderwench,” continuing the derision. Yet Cinderella bears it according to her nature. Rather than reviling in return, she is content to humble herself in dust and ashes by the chimney, thus earning her name. Sitting in dust and ashes was a consistent picture of humility within the Old Testament. Thus even Cinderella’s name speaks to her humility, which is a grace the Lord places upon the church. In this condition, Cinderella’s countenance is still bright and hopeful, which is an example of how the church may patiently endure as she waits for the return of Christ.

The invitation to the prince’s ball, presents the perfect opportunity for Cinderella to show who she truly is and experience favor. Thus she reflects the favor the church experiences through her journey in the world. Her wicked stepsisters try to put on their best trappings in order to impress the prince. Yet even the best cover cannot hide the wickedness of the heart. Cinderella, on the other hand, is beautiful within and only needs outward garments that will reflect her inward beauty. When left alone, she experiences the favor and power of her fairy godmother. Through her godmother’s supernatural power, a carriage, attendants, dress, and slippers are created for her so that her outward beauty reflected her inward beauty.

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As the virtuous, beautiful, and richly adorned Cinderella goes to the ball, she is also given a test to show her faithfulness. She is told she must return by midnight or all will revert to what it was. Just like Adam and Eve were given one commandment in the garden to show they wanted to stay in relationship with God, so Cinderella is given one commandment to show her faithfulness to her godmother. Cinderella’s attending the ball as a royal princess is a picture of the true position of the church. Because King Jesus has saved her and united the church to Himself, the church is now royal and it is perfectly appropriate for her to be pictured in royal garments. There are moments in the church’s journey on earth when supernatural favor and power are given to her in order to reveal who she really is. This favor and power are most clearly seen through the various miracles the disciples of Jesus performed. They healed many and raised some from the dead in order to show they were united to Christ and members of His heavenly kingdom. The church is also tested by various commands to love, not to earn her salvation, but to show she is already united to Christ and desires to be faithful to Him.

The final stage of the church’s journey is when King Jesus returns and she is wed to Him forever. This stage is reflected in the final part of the fairy tale—Cinderella leaves the ball in a hurry and the prince goes to seek her out. Just as Jesus will send out his angels to gather the saints from the earth (Matt. 24:31), so the prince sends out his servants to find Cinderella. As the servants came to Cinderella’s house, her wicked stepsisters seek to shove their feet into the glass slipper. This is an image of the unredeemed trying to force themselves into the kingdom of God. But they will never attain the kingdom by force. The kingdom is only for those for whom it has been prepared, just as the glass slipper was perfectly prepared for Cinderella. The young girl easily slides her foot into the slipper and is revealed as the true princess the prince longs for. Upon finding her, the prince marries her and brings her into his kingdom, just as Jesus will one day bring the church fully into the kingdom of heaven.

Again, “Cinderella” was not written as a Christian allegory, but there are strong reflections of the gospel naturally hidden within it. The presence of such reflections reveal that there is a God who governs all stories and hides glimpses of His nature even in an old fairy tale, just like He does in all of creation. Within Cinderella, there is a clear image of the endurance, favor, and rescue of the church which can encourage every Christian who reads it.

Storylines in its nearly three-year run ranged from the traditional to the supernatural. One of the first storylines concerned an Internet romance. Kansas farm girl Meg Cummings discovered her fiancé, Tim Truman, cheating on her on their wedding day. Meg had been talking online with SB, a man who lived in Sunset Beach, California. And after catching Tim with her maid of honor, Meg fled to Sunset Beach in search of SB, who turned out to be wealthy, widowed businessman Ben Evans.

When the moon rises early, just as the Santa Ana winds kicks up out of nowhere, and the sun is just dropping out of sight, whoever you meet at the far side of the pier, is who you're destined to be with. Elaine Stevens (the legend of Sunset Beach)[16]

The first year of the show revolved around Meg's pursuit of Ben (including her briefly breaking into his house, stealing a journal she found there, and dressing up in his late wife's clothes), who was initially not interested in her, and the gradual development of a romance between them. A side plot showed the antagonistic relationship between Meg and Annie Douglas, Ben's longtime best friend. Meg hated Annie for being close to Ben and wanted to cut her out of his life; Annie hated Meg out of jealousy for her developing romance with Ben. Their problems reached a head with a physical fight in a hot tub. Meg's ex-fiancé Tim Truman followed her to Sunset Beach to win her back, and ended up becoming Annie's ally and almost love interest. Once Meg and Annie had overcome their differences, Meg soon had a new problem when she began to suspect Ben was a murderer, although this plot line was developed to lead up to the Terror Island storyline. After the Terror Island/Derek storyline (see below) none of the issues raised were ever mentioned again.

Meg and Ben became one of the show's first couples, along with jewel thief Cole Deschanel and local heiress Caitlin Richards. Cole slept with and impregnated both Caitlin and Caitlin's unhappy alcoholic mother Olivia Richards. Olivia and her fiendish ex-husband, Gregory Richards, planned to steal Caitlin's baby and pass it off as Olivia's (telling Caitlin her baby had died) in order to break up Caitlin's relationship with Cole, who her parents disapproved of because of his criminal past. Caitlin lost the child in a car accident when she found out about her parents' horrible plan, and planned to fake the rest of her pregnancy and adopt a baby to pass off as her own, as she was worried her inability to have children (caused by the accident) would cause problems in her marriage to Cole. She enlisted the help of Annie, who was secretly trying to break up Olivia and Gregory, due to a term in her father's will that stated she would only get her inheritance if she wed Gregory (her father's way of breaking up his marriage to Olivia, who he had been having an affair with) Annie drugged Olivia and stole her baby, telling her the baby had been stillborn. Caitlin (unknowingly) raised her baby half-brother (who was also her step-son, having been fathered by her husband) until a grief-stricken Olivia discovered the truth. Olivia was eventually reunited with her son.

When the show began, it was the only soap on the air featuring Asian-American characters, though they were written off before the end of the first year. The show also had daytime television's only African-American villainess, Virginia Harrison, who schemed to break up lifeguard Michael Bourne and reporter Vanessa Hart so she could have Michael for herself.

Prominent storylines

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In one of the most outrageous storylines on the show, Virginia drugged Vanessa and, using a baster and some stolen sperm, impregnated her with the child of Tyus Robinson, to make it appear Vanessa had been unfaithful to Michael, who was infertile.

The show was known for other outrageous storylines, such as Terror Island in which several of the show's main characters were stranded on an island with a masked serial killer (whose costume bore a close resemblance to that of the killer from Scream) intent on killing them, especially Meg. A handful of characters were killed by the maniac, mostly minor characters introduced as serial killer-fodder, but also one lead character, young runaway made good Mark Wolper. In his dying moments Mark pulled off the killer's mask and audiences were stunned to see Ben's face behind it. As it turned out, Ben had an evil twin, Derek Evans, who plagued Ben and Meg's lives off and on for the rest of the run of the show. Derek was killed after being shot in a struggle with Ben during the show's final weeks, following a long storyline where Derek kidnapped and impersonated his twin for months, sleeping with Ben's wife Maria Torres (having previously also slept with Meg).

Maria Torres, who had wed Ben when she was still a teenager and he was barely in his twenties, had disappeared and been presumed drowned after a boating accident that took place some years prior to the start of the show. Ben was haunted by the terrible secret that he had caught her in bed with Derek (it was later revealed that Derek—who had impersonated Ben to Maria, who was unaware Ben had a twin—had not slept with Maria, as she had stabbed him with scissors when he tried to rape her). Ben's guilt and grief over Maria caused a shadow over his relationship with Meg from the beginning, which worsened when an amnesiac Maria came back from the dead at Ben and Meg's October 1998 wedding. Ben and Maria grew closer while he helped her to regain her memory, and once she did, Ben flip flopped between the two women for much of the rest of the show's run. During the show's last year a strange woman, Tess, turned up on his doorstep with a son she claimed was Ben and Maria's. After a positive paternity test they raised the child, Benjy, together, causing even more problems for Meg, who left Ben and briefly started dating her sister's boyfriend, Casey Mitchum. Derek (who was also wrongfully presumed dead) returned to kidnap Ben again, and it was revealed he and Tess were Benjy's parents.

Another outrageous storyline was the earthquake/tsunami story, in which Sunset Beach was struck by a massive earthquake, trapping many characters – most of them each other's rival – together in life and death situations. While half the cast battled the disaster on land, the rest of the cast was on a pleasure cruise aboard a ship that was overturned – à la The Poseidon Adventure – by a tsunami created by the earthquake.

The tsunami storyline proved so popular that two weeks' worth of episodes were compiled and turned into an hour-long show that was included on NBC's lineup for one night in August 1998. The show took a supernatural turn for a while with some cursed jewels, stolen from a religious icon, that turned those who'd touched them into shrivelled mummies. The story culminated on Christmas Eve with the return of the jewels to the Madonna just in time to prevent the deaths of several key characters.

The show also featured two murder mysteries in its run. The first was the murder of Annie's father Del Douglas by Elaine Stevens. Del had kidnapped Cole as a baby and convinced Elaine the child was dead. The second murder mystery involved the death of seductress and jewel thief Francesca Vargas, whom just about everyone in town wanted dead. The twist in the Who Shot Francesca storyline and the killer was main antagonist character Gregory Richards.