 |
| Photo source: mashable.com |
I just finished watching Disney's Beauty and the Beast with my children.
It is a beautiful story of romance and transformation, of love and courage.
But like all good stories, it is really a retelling of the best story of them all:
the gospel story.
For just as Beast was cursed from an enchantress, aren't we all cursed from the Fall of Adam and Eve. Don't we all live in a colder, harsher reality than the one in which God created and intended for us to dwell? Don't we ache with the desire for redemption in our hearts?
Like Beast, aren't we all held prisoner by the ugliness and curse of sin?
Aren't we all given to fits of anger, depression, anxiety, and feel alone, misunderstood, and without hope?
In fact, the Scriptures speak to this very thing, right here in the Psalms...
When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.
And yet, even as boorish and beastly as we can be in our sin, Christ chose to love us and be near us, for now into eternity. The psalmist continues...
Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever. --Psalm 73:21-26
My favorite part of the movie is towards the end, when Beast undergoes a miraculous transformation back into a handsome prince; this happens only when he is truly loved, unconditionally and sacrificially, by Belle.
And just like Beast, we too are transformed because of Christ's love and sacrifice.
Because He loves us...
...our curse is lifted
...we are able to truly love (1 John 4:19)
...we transform from a hideous and damned creature into the beautiful bride of Christ
...we step from hopelessness and death to everlasting hope and eternal life!
My question for each of us today is: Do we walk in that identity, dear one? Do we see it with wonder, afresh each day? Do we live in the truth that we are loved, accepted, chosen, granted life and hope and peace and beauty--not based on our own merit, but in spite of ourselves, because of God's free gift of salvation to us?!
Oh, how I pray we would walk in that joy and freedom today!
No comments