Fairy Tales are Real
66
Growing up, me and my sisters watched Disney movie after Disney movie. Ashley, the eldest’s, favorite is Cinderella, mine is Sleeping Beauty, Tiffany’s is Aladdin, and Melody’s is The Aristocats. Three princesses and some cats. Go figure.
Fairytales are a part of most children’s upbringing, they shape our dreams and desires and even our fears. Working as a Nanny has taken me back to many childhood memories and activities that I otherwise would not take part in. One of those is activities is watching Disney movies. I’m still a bit of a kid so I do find myself getting rather excited when I discover the kids I care for have a huge movie collection (guys get to be 45 and still play video games so us girls have every right to enjoy our princess movies, okay?). I even shamelessly try and manipulate them to watch what I want.
-Oh look! Sleeping Beauty! Why don’t we watch that?!
-No, we want to watch Monster’s Inc.
-But this has a cool dragon and fairies and everything! You sure you don’t want this one?
-No…
-What if I give you a cookie?
So sad I have that much vested interest.
Watching these movies as an adult, though, is a totally different experience altogether. They have not lost their appeal or special place in my heart. If anything, they have grown more dear to me and this is because they have often been a tool for me worshipping the Lord. Take that, all you parents banning your kids from their rite of passage that is Walt Disney Magic! Sorry about that. I’m calm now.
One night while babysitting two of my faves, Reese (“ReesieCat”) and Beau (“Beau Baby”, who has the most adorable laugh/growl), we watched Snow White. Bed time was looming so I put the baby in his bed and had Reese go get her pajamas to bring to me but the movie was still playing. I stepped back into the movie room to straighten up but got a little mesmerized by the TV. I told myself, I’ll just watch this last part.
Snow White was in her glass coffin when the Prince found her. He leaned down and kissed her, which of couse, revivd her to life. The seve dwarves and some highly intelligent woodland creatures rejoiced but it was now time for the Prince to take Snow White to his home. He lifted her onto his horse, side saddle, then took the reings in his hand. The ethereal closing song rang out:
Someday my prince will cme
Someday we'll meet again
And away to his castle we'll go
To be happy forever I know
Someday when spring is here
We'll find our love anew
And the birds will sing
And wedding bells will ring
Someday when my dreams come true
Then the Prince led Snow White atop a hill and from there you could see his castle gleaming as it emerged from a curtain of golden-pink clouds. My eyes immediately filled with tears. This wasn’t a love story about a Prince and a Princess incognito and this wasn’t just some fairytale castle. My eyes were seeing Christ showing His bride her new home---“the New Jerusalem descending from Heaven like a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2).
I never saw this as a child but now there was no way not to see it. I found myself worshipping the Lord in my heart that night and praising Him for His great love for us as the credits rolled on a children’s film from the 1930s.
On a separate babysitting night before this (and when I succeeded and got my way with Sleeping Beauty), Reese, Beau and I started to watch my all time fave and in the beginning when the city is having a parade and singing the royal family’s praise, I again thought of Jesus. The song they sang is:
Hail Aurora!
Hail Aurora!
Hail to the King!
Hail to the Queen!
Hail to the Princess, Aurora!
And I thought what a regal, imperial song! But I want to hail JESUS! I can just see us in Heaven waving banners and palm branches and throwing rose petals in the air to our Conquering King as wedding bells ring and angels soar through the air. And as Jesus comes down the center aisle of Heaven’s multitude on His white horse, robed in glory, a golden crown on His head, we hail His name. I want to sing songs like that then. I want to sing songs like that now. Hail to the King!
I took my grandmother to go see Tangled when it first came out and I got so emotional. I rarely cry at movies and if I do it’s because I see spiritual symbolism (Spiderman 2, the Book of Eli…I know, I’m weird). But in Tangled, Rupunzel’s dad, the King, showed such sorrow over his lost daughter. I was awestruck by what seemed to me a perfect depiction of what sorrow and heartache God the Father must feel for His lost ‘sons and daughters’ who have not come home to Him.
Who knew a simple cartoon had the power to catapult your heart into such a sublime worshipful state? These impromptu Disney-worship-services led me to do a little research on the Brothers Grimm; what I found astounded me. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s father, Philipp, was the son of a clergyman and he preached a life of faith, zealous work, and family loyalty. The Brothers Grimm were known for their devout faith, which even led to them editing folklore to a purer version. Sexual content was discarded while Christian motifs, gender roles, and child-rearing lessons were emphasized. It gives me goose bumps just thinking about it. Here were these Christian men from the 19th century using their talents and love for the written word to serve God and insert the Gospel. These stories are not only still propagated to this day but are beloved all over the globe. The earth truly is filled with God’s glory, even in hidden areas one would not suspect.
The following National Geographic quote is one I found to be an uncanny worldly mirror of the Bible’s truth.
“The editorial fingerprints left by the Grimm’s betray the specific values of 19th-century Christian, bourgeois German society. But that has not stopped the tales from being embraced by almost every culture and nationality in the world. What accounts for this widespread, enduring popularity? Bernhard Lauer points to the "universal style" of the writing. "You have no concrete descriptions of the land, or the clothes, or the forest, or the castles. It makes the stories timeless and placeless.”
The tales allow us to express "our utopian longings," says Jack Zipes of the University of Minnesota..."They show a striving for happiness that none of us knows but that we sense is possible.” (emphasis mine)
The world says “Utopia,” scripture says “Heaven.” The world “strives for happiness” while scripture says that God has placed eternity (and the desire for happiness, peace, and perfection) in the hearts of man (Ecc 3:11). And this blissful eternity can only come by the opposite of striving---by grace through faith in Jesus Christ the Messiah. Fairytales are real in that they reflect the truths and themes of scripture. Fallen mankind is in need of a hero and longs---goans--- (Rom 8:22) for a happily ever after.
As a kid, I used to daydream about Heaven a lot and just how awesome being in Jesus’ presence would be. My heart overflowed with excitement for my real home and this and glee only carried over into a greater zeal for this present life and desire to share the gospel. With age not only can childhood dreams die but so can a ripe love for our First Love and a passion for His kingdom and the age that is to come.
Heaven and eternity become common place words with boring connotations. And while we give assent to their existence, our hearts can be rather dull to the wonders that God is preparing for us who love Him (1 Cor 2:9). We can get caught up in the cares of this world, its lures, its problems and forget the joy of Jesus that’s a present reality for us now.
We can also chide ourselves for being “childish” for dreaming about or desiring heavenly things but that is “childlike”---not “childish.” Jesus esteems the heart and faith of a child, which is precious and necessary for proper kingdom living. What I want to be, what I want to have is the childlike faith to believe the words of God in the pages of scripture and to follow wherever He leads. I want to have a childlike heart that has me sitting on the edge of my seat, wriggling with expectation about the thought of going home to be with my loving Savior.
And that’s not “escapism” as some dark-minded intellectuals might think, that’s being likeminded with Christ “who, for the joy (payoff, happy ending, triumph over Satan and sin, the victory of a redeemed Bride, and pleasure of enjoying eternity with His children) set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:2).
I think to endure our own crosses we need to have our joy---Jesus---set before us always. Christ and our eternal destination and an eternal viewpoint need to be the picture in front of our eyes. We need this as the filer through which we view this temporal world. For the things that can be seen are temporary but the things that are unseen are eternal. We can, with our mind’s eye, make the choice to see the unseen. By doing so, we stand a much better chance of honoring Christ to the greatest degree with our fleeting lifespan.
The last song of Sleeping Beauty that I proudly rocked out to just a few minutes ago (I just know there will be flutes and harps galore in Heaven) ends with the line: “For true love conquers all…”
And it does. True love---God’s love manifested in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross over 2,000 years ago---conquered and conquers all. The fairytales are true. There is a bad guy trying to take over, there is a damsel in distress and there is most definitely a heroic Prince of Peace coming to the rescue, putting His life on the line and waking His bride with a Holy kiss. There is a real happily ever after and it reads like this:
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be His people and God Himself will be with them as their God” (Rev. 21:3).
My personal advice: Go watch a Disney film. Cry like a baby. See the glory of God filling a worldly medium, proclaiming the love and majesty and victory of His Son.
Hail to the King! Hail to the King! Hail to the Savior, Emmanuel!
